1822003715653 


UNIVERSITY  Of 
CALIFORNIA 
SAN  DiEGO 


presented  to  the 

LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  •  SAN  DIEGO 
by 

FRIENDS  OF  THE  LI1JRARY 


Mrs.  Samuel  H«  Robar-ts 

donor 


3  182200371  5653 


M  o 


LIVES   AND   SPEECHES 


OP 


ABEAHAM   LINCOLN 


HANNIBAL  HAMLIN. 


£/<j$**« 

£O        7 

At-1     *-&ML/i 


ru* 


LIVES  AND  SPEECHES 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


HANNIBAL  HAMLIK 


COLUMBUS,    0.: 
F  O  L,  L  E  T  T,      FOSTER      &      CO. 

CINCINNATI  :  HICKEY,  MALLOUY  &  co. 
1860. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1860, 

BY  FOLLET,  FOSTER  k  CO., 
in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  for  the  Southern  District  of  Ohio. 


H'STIS    >1 
APPLEOATI  t    K.. 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PORTRAIT   OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 
REPUBLICAN  WIGWAM   AT  CHICAGO. 
PORTRAIT  OF  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN. 


(5) 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN, 17 

MEMORABILIA  OF  THE  CHICAGO  CONVENTION, 97 

REPUBLICAN  PLATFORM, 99 

BALLOTS  FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY, 104 

SPEECH  OF  MR.  EVARTS, 106 

RESPONSE  OF  MR.  BROWNING, 107 

PRESIDENT  ASHMUN'S  VALEDICTORY, 109 

SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN, 113 

AT  CINCINNATI,  SEPTEMBER,  1859, 115 

ON  INTERNAL  IMPROVEMENTS,  IN   CONGRESS,  JUNE   20, 

1848, 154 

IN  REPLY  TO  DOUGLAS,  REPRESENTATIVES'  HALL,  SPRING- 
FIELD, JUNE  26,  1857, 170 

AT  COOPER  INSTITUTE,  FEBRUARY  27,  1860, 188 

AT  COLUMBUS,  SEPTEMBER,  1859, 214 

AT  PEORIA,  OCTOBER  16,  1854, 251 

LIFE  OF  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN, 305 

CO 


LIFE 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 


BY 


W.    D.    HO  WELLS. 


PREFACE. 


WHEN  one  has  written  a  hurried  book,  one  likes 
to  dwell  upon  the  fact,  that  if  the  time  had  not 
been  wanting  one  could  have  made  it  a  great  deal 
better. 

This  fact  is  of  the  greatest  comfort  to  the  author, 
and  not  of  the  slightest  consequence  to  anybody 
else. 

It  is  perfectly  reasonable,  therefore,  that  every 
writer  should  urge  it. 

A  work  which  seeks  only  to  acquaint  people  with 
the  personal  history  of  a  man  for  whom  they  are 
asked  to  cast  their  votes — and  whose  past  ceases  to 
concern  them  in  proportion  as  his  present  employs 
them — will  not  be  numbered  with  those  immortal 
books  which  survive  the  year  of  their  publication. 
It  does  not  challenge  criticism;  it  fulfills  the  end 
of  its  being  if  it  presents  facts  and  incidents  in  a 
manner  not  altogether  barren  of  interest. 


Xli  PREFACE. 

It  is  believed  that  the  following  biographical  sketch 
of  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  will  be  found  reliable.  The 
information  upon  which  the  narrative  is  based,  has 
been  derived  chiefly  from  the  remembrance  of  MR. 
LINCOLN'S  old  friends,  and  may,  therefore,  be  con- 
sidered authentic.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  add, 
that  no  one  but  the  writer  is  responsible  for  his 
manner  of  treating  events  and  men. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PACJH 

Lincoln's  Ancestry— Emigration  to  Kentucky — Lincoln's  Grand- 
father killed  by  Indians — Dispersion  of  family — Birth  of  Lin- 
coln— Parentage — First  Schooling — Removal  to  Indiana — 
Forest  Life — First  Flat-boat  Trip  to  New  Orleans — Death  of 
Lincoln's  Mother — Removal  to  Illinois — The  Historic  Rails...  17 


CHAPTER  II. 

Denton  Offutt  —  Another  Flat-boat  Trip  to  New  Orleans  —  Boat 
built  and  Trip  made  —  Lincoln's  Location  at  New  Salem  —  First 
Speech  —  Self-Education  —  Ardor  in  Study  —  Favorite  Authors 
—  Practicing  Polemics  —  "Clary's  Grove  Boys"  —  Defense  of 
Jack  Armstrong's  Son  .......................................................  25 


CHAPTER  III. 

Black  Hawk's  War  —  Brief  Review  of  its  Events  —  Failure  of 
Offutt  in  Business  —  Lincoln  Volunteers  and  is  made  Captain 
—  Incident  of  the    Campaign  —  First    legislative    Canvass  — 
Popularity  —  Surveying    Experiences  —  Lincoln's    Store  —  Ac- 
count of  the  Purchasers  —  Failure  of  the  Proprietors  —  Pay- 
ment of  forgotten  Debt  ......................................................     36 

(xiii) 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

PA  OK 

Lincoln's  legislative  Career — Rage  for  Public  Improvements  in 
Illinois — Lincoln's  Votes  in  the  Legislature — First  Opposition 
to  Douglas — The  Long  Nine — Electioneering  Candidate — 
Admiration  of  Lincoln's  old  Neighbors  for  him — Lincoln 
studies  Law 44 


CHAPTER  V. 

Retrospective — Lincoln's  Position  twenty  Years  ago — Practice 
of  the  Law — Characteristics  as  a  Lawyer — Marriage — Cam- 
paign of  1844 — Election  to  Congress 50 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Lincoln  in  Congress — The  Mexican  War — Opposition  to  it — 
Speech  and  Resolutions  against  the  War — Speech  in  Favor  of 
River  and  Harbor  Improvements — Abolition  of  Slavery  in  the 
District  of  Columbia — Lincoln's  Proposition — The  Wilmot 
Proviso— Retirement  from  Congress 56 

CHAPTER  VII. 

The  Whig  Party — The  Free  Soilers — Lincoln's  Services  in  the 
Taylor  and  Scott  Campaigns — Decay  of  the  Whig  Party — Re- 
peal of  the  Missouri  Compromise — Lincoln  once  more  in  the 
Field — Election  of  Trumbull  to  the  Senate — Lincoln's  Sacri- 
fices of  personal  Ambition — The  Anti-Nebraska  State  Conven- 
tion— Formation  of  the  Republican  Party  in  Illinois 66 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

Vote  for  Lincoln  in  the  National  Convention  of  1856 — Position 
in  the  Fremont  Campaign — Debates  with  Douglas — Letter  to 
Doctor  Canisius  on  Naturalization — Speeches  in  Ohio  and  the 
Eastern  States 77 


CONTENTS.  XV 

CHAPTEE  IX. 

PAGE 

Chicago  Convention — Nomination  of  Lincoln — His  Reception  of 
the  News — Visit  of  the  Committee  of  Official  Announcement — 
Speeches  of  Mr.  Ashmun  and  Lincoln — Letter  of  Acceptance 
— Lincoln  at  Home — His  Appearance,  etc 88 


LIFE   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


CHAPTEK  I. 

IT  is  necessary  that  every  American  should  have  an 
indisputable  grandfather,  in  order  to  be  represented  in 
the  Revolutionary  period  by  actual  ancestral  service, 
or  connected  with  it  by  ancestral  reminiscence.  Fur- 
ther back  than  a  grandfather  few  can  go  with  satisfac- 
tion. Everything  lies  wrapt  in  colonial  obscurity  and 
confusion ;  and  you  have  either  to  claim  that  the  Smiths 
came  over  in  the  Mayflower,  or  that  the  Joneses  were 
originally  a  Huguenot  family  of  vast  wealth  and  the 
gentlest  blood ;  or  that  the  Browns  are  descended  from 
the  race  of  Powhattan  in  the  direct  line;  or  you  are 
left  in  an  extremely  embarrassing  uncertainty  as  to  the 
fact  of  great-grandparents. 

We  do  not  find  it  profitable  to  travel  far  into  the  past 
in  search  of  Abraham  Lincoln's  ancestry.  There  is  a 
dim  possibility  that  he  is  of  the  stock  of  the  New  Eng- 
land Lincolns,  of  Plymouth  colony  ;  but  the  noble  sci- 
ence of  heraldry  is  almost  obsolete  in  this  country,  and 

(17) 


18  LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

none  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  family  seems  to  have  been  aware 
of  the  preciousness  of  long  pedigrees,  so  that  the  records 
are  meagre.  The  first  that  is  known  of  his  forefathers 
is  that  they  were  Quakers,  who  may  have  assisted  in 
those  shrewd  bargains  which  honest  William  Penn 
drove  with  the  Indians,  for  we  find  them  settled  at  an 
early  day  in  the  old  county  of  Berks,  in  Pennsylvania, 
where  doubtless  some  of  their  descendants  yet  remain. 
Whether  these  have  fallen  away  from  the  calm  faith  of 
their  ancestors  is  not  a  matter  of  history,  but  it  is  cer- 
tain that  the  family  from  which  the  present  Abraham 
Lincoln  derives  his  lineage,  long  ago  ceased  to  be  Qua- 
ker in  everything  but  its  devout  Scriptural  names.  His 
grandfather,  (anterior  to  whom  is  incertitude,  and  abso- 
lute darkness  of  names  and  dates,)  was  born  in  Rock- 
ingham  county,  Virginia,  whither  part  of  the  family  had 
emigrated  from  Pennsylvania;  and  had  four  brothers, 
patriarchially  and  apostolically  named  Isaac,  Jacob, 
John,  and  Thomas-;  himself  heading  the  list  as  Abra- 
ham Lincoln. 

The  descendants  of  Jacob  and  John,  if  any  survive, 
still  reside  in  Virginia;  Thomas  settled  in  the  Cumber- 
land region,  near  the  adjunction  of  North  Carolina, 
Tennessee,  and  Virginia,  and  very  probably  his  chil- 
dren's children  may  there  be  found.  Late  in  the  last 
century,  Abraham,  with  his  wife  and  five  children,  re- 
moved from  Rockingham  to  Kentucky,  at  a  time  when 
the  border  was  the  scene  of  savage  warfare  between 
the  Indians  and  the  whites,  and  when  frontier  life  was 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.          19 

diversified  by  continual  incursions,  repulsions,  and  re- 
prisals, on  one  side  and  on  the  other.  In  one  of  these 
frequent  invasions,  Abraham  Lincoln  was  killed  by 
the  Indians,  who  stole  upon  him  while  he  was  at  work 
and  shot  him.  There  is  historical  mention  made  of  an 
Indian  expedition  to  Hardin  county,  Kentucky,  in  1781, 
which  resulted  in  the  massacre  of  some  of  the  settlers; 
but  the  date  of  Lincoln's  death  is  fixed  some  three  years 
later,  and  there  is  no  other  account  of  it  than  family 
tradition. 

His  wife,  his  three  sons  and  two  daughters  survived 
him;  but  the  dispersion  of  his  family  soon  took  place; 
the  daughters  marrying,  and  the  sons  seeking  their  for- 
tunes in  different  localities.  Of  the  latter,  Thomas  Lin- 
coln, the  father  of  Abraham  Lincoln  of  to-day,  was  the 
youngest,  and  doubtless  felt  more  severely  than  the  rest 
the  loss  which  had  befallen  tliem.  They  were  poor, 
even  for  that  rude  time  and  country;  and  as  a  child, 
Thomas  made  acquaintance  only  with  hardship  and  pri- 
vation. He  was  a  wandering,  homeless  boy,  working 
when  he  could  find  work,  and  enduring  when  he  could 
not.  He  grew  up  without  education  ;  his  sole  accom- 
plishment in  chirography  being  his  own  clumsy  signa- 
ture. At  twenty-eight  he  married  Lucy  Hanks,  and 
settled  in  Hardin  county,  where,  on  the  12th  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1809,  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  was  born. 

Lincoln's  mother  was,  like  his  father,  Virginian  ;  but 
beyond  this,  little  or  nothing  is  known  of  her.  From 
both  his  parents  young  Lincoln  inherited  an  iron  con- 


20          LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

stitution  and  a  decent  poverty.  From  his  father  came 
that  knack  of  story-telling,  which  has  made  him  so  de- 
lightful among  acquaintances,  and  so  irresistible  in  his 
stump  and  forensic  drolleries.  It  is  a  matter  of  some 
regret  that  the  information  with  regard  to  Thomas  Lin- 
coln and  his  wife  is  so  meager.  The  information  is, 
however,  not  altogether  necessary  to  the  present  history, 
and  the  conjecture  to  which  one  is  tempted  would  be  as 
idle  as  impertinent.  It  is  certain  that  Lincoln  cherished, 
with  just  pride,  a  family  repute  for  native  ability,  and 
alluded  to  it  in  after  life,  when  he  felt  the  first  impulses 
of  ambition,  and  began  in  earnest  his  struggle  with  the 
accidents  of  ignorance  and  poverty. 

A  younger  brother  of  Abraham's  died  in  infancy ; 
and  a  sister,  older  than  himself,  married  and  died  many 
years  ago.  With  her  he  attended  school  during  his 
early  childhood  in  Kentucky,  and  acquired  the  alpha- 
bet, and  other  rudiments  of  education.  The  schooling 
which  Abraham  then  received  from  the  books  and  birch 
of  Zachariah  Riney  and  Caleb  Hazel,  (of  pedagogic 
memory,)  and  afterward  from  Azel  W.  Dorsey,*  and 
.one  or  two  others  in  Indiana,  amounted  in  time  to 
nearly  a  year,  and  can  not  be  otherwise  computed.  It 
is  certain,  however,  that  this  brief  period  limits  his  scho- 
lastic course.  Outside  of  it,  his  education  took  place 
through  the  rough  and  wholesome  experiences  of  border 

*This  gentleman  is  still  living  in  Schuyler  county,  Illinois. 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.         21 

life,  the  promptings  of  a  restless  ambition,  and  a  pro- 
found love  of  knowledge  for  its  own  sake.  Under  these 
influences,  he  has  ripened  into  a  hardy  physical  man- 
hood, and  acquired  a  wide  and  thorough  intelligence, 
without  the  aid  of  schools  or  preceptors. 

In  the  autumn  of  1816,  when  Abraham  was  eight 
years  old,  his  father  determined  to  quit  Kentucky.  Al- 
ready the  evil  influences  of  slavery  were  beginning  to 
be  felt  by  the  poor  and  the  non-slaveholders.  •  But  the 
emigration  of  Thomas  Lincoln  is,  we  believe,  to  be  chiefly 
attributed  to  the  insecurity  of  the  right  by  which  he  held 
his  Kentucky  land ;  for,  in  those  days,  land-titles  were 
rather  more  uncertain  than  other  human  affairs.  Aban- 
doning his  old  home,  and  striking  through  the  forests  in 
a  northwesterly  direction,  he  fixed  his  new  dwelling- 
place  in  the  heart  of  the  "  forest  primeval  "  of  what  is 
now  Spencer  county,  Indiana.  The  dumb  solitude  there 
had  never  echoed  to  the  ax,  and  the  whole  land  was  a 
wilderness. 

The  rude  cabin  of  the  settler  was  hastily  erected,  and 
then  those  struggles  and  hardships  commenced  which 
are  the  common  trials  of  frontier  life,  and  of  which  the 
story  has  been  so  often  repeated.  Abraham  was  a  hardy 
boy,  large  for  his  years,  and  with  his  ax  did  manful 
service  in  clearing  the  land.  Indeed,  with  that  imple- 
ment, he  literally  hewed  out  his  path  to  manhood ;  for, 
until  he  was  twenty-three,  the  ax  was  seldom  out  of  his 
hand,  except  in  the  intervals  of  labor,  or  when  it  was  ex- 
changed for  the  plow,  the  hoe,  or  the  sickle.  His  youth- 


22         LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OP   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

ful  experiences  in  this  forest  life  did  not  differ  from  those 
familiar  to  many  others.  As  an  adventurous  boy,  no 
doubt  the  wood  was  full  of  delight  and  excitement  to  him. 
No  doubt  he  hunted  the  coon,  trapped  the  turkey,  and 
robbed  the  nest  of  the  pheasant.  As  a  hunter  with  the 
rifle,  however,  he  did  not  acquire  great  skill,  for  he  has 
never  excelled  an  exploit  of  his  eighth  year,  when  he 
shot  the  leader  of  a  flock  of  turkeys  which  ventured 
within  sight  of  the  cabin  during  his  father's  absence. 

The  family  had  hardly  been  two  years  in  their  new 
home  when  it  was  desolated  by  the  death  of  Abraham's 
mother.  This  heavy  loss  was  afterward  partially  re- 
paired by  the  marriage  of  his  father  to  Mrs.  Sally  John- 
ston, of  Elizabethtown,  Kentucky.  She  was  the  parent 
of  three  children  by  a  former  husband,  and  was  always  a 
good  and  affectionate  mother  to  Thomas  Lincoln's  moth- 
erless son.* 

The  Lincolns  continued  to  live  in  Spencer  county, 
until  1830,  nothing  interrupting  the  even  tenor  of  Abra- 
ham's life,  except  in  his  nineteeth  year,  a  flat-boat  trip 
to  New  Orleans.  He  and  a  son  of  the  owner  composed 
the  crew,  and  without  other  assistance,  voyaged 

"  Down  the  beautiful  river, 

Past  the  Ohio  shore,  and  past  the  mouth  of  the  Wabash, 
Into  the  golden  stream  of  the  broad  and  swift  Mississippi," 

Trafficking  here  and  there,  in  their  course,  with  the 

*  Mrs.  Lincoln  is  still  living,  in  Coles  county,  Illinois. 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  23 

inhabitants,  and  catching  glimpses  of  the  great  world  so 
long  shut  out  by  the  woods.  One  night,  having  tied  up 
their  "cumbrous  boat,"  near  a  solitary  plantation  on  the 
sugar  coast,  they  were  attacked  and  boarded  by  seven 
stalwart  negroes;  but  Lincoln  and  his  comrade,  after  a 
severe  contest  in  which  both  were  hurt,  succeeded  in 
beating  their  assailants  and  driving  them  from  the  boat. 
After  which  they  weighed  what  anchor  they  had,  as 
speedily  as  possible,  and  gave  themselves  to  the  middle 
current  again.  With  this  sole  adventure,  Lincoln  re- 
sumed his  quiet  backwoods  life  in  Indiana. 

Four  years  afterward,  on  the  first  of  March,  1830, 
his  father  determined  to  emigrate  once  more,  and  the 
family  abandoned  the  cabin  which  had  been  their  home 
so  long,  and  set  out  for  Illinois.  The  emigrant  company 
was  made  up  of  Thomas  Lincoln's  family,  and  the  fami- 
lies of  Mrs.  Lincoln's  two  sons-in-law.  Their  means  of 
progress  and  conveyance  were  ox-wagons,  one  of  which 
Abraham  Lincoln  drove.  Before  the  month  was  elapsed 
they  had  arrived  at  Macon  county,  Illinois,  where  they 
remained  a  short  time,  and  Lincoln's  family  "located" 
on  some  new  land,  about  ten  miles  northwest  of  Deca- 
tur,  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Sangamon  river,  at  a 
junction  of  forest  and  prairie  land.  Here  the  father 
and  son  built  a  log-cabin,  and  split  rails  enough  to  fence 
in  their  land.  It  is  supposed  that  these  are  the  rails 
which  have  since  become  historic  ;  though  they  were  by 
no  means  the  only  ones  which  the  robust  young  back- 
woodsman made.  Indeed,  there  are  other  particular 


24         LIFE  AND   SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

rails*  which  dispute  a  celebrity  somewhat  indifferent 
to  the  sincere  admirer  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  The  work  done 
was  in  the  course  of  farm  labor,  and  went  to  the  devel- 
opment of  Mr.  Lincoln's  muscle.  Otherwise  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  perceive  how  it  has  affected  his  career. 


*Mr.  George  Close,  the  partner  of  Lincoln  in  the  rail-splitting  business,  says 
that  Lincoln  was,  at  this  time,  a  farm  laborer,  working  from  day  to  day,  for 
different  people,  chopping  wood,  mauling  rails,  or  doing  whatever  was  to  be 
done.  The  country  was  poor,  and  hard  work  was  the  common  lot ;  the  heaviest 
share  falling  to  young  unmarried  men,  with  whom  it  was  a  continual  struggle 
to  earn  a  livelihood.  Lincoln  and  Mr.  Close  made  about  one  thousand  rails  to- 
gether, for  James  Hawks  and  William  Miller,  receiving  their  pay  in  homespun 
clothing.  Lincoln's  bargain  with  Miller's  wife,  was,  that  he  should  have  one 
yard  of  brown  jeans,  (richly  dyed  with  walnut  bark,)  for  every  four  hundred 
rails  made,  until  he  should  have  enough  for  a  pair  of  trowsers.  As  Lincoln  was 
already  of  great  altitude,  the  number  of  rails  that  went  to  the  acquirement  of 
his  pantaloons  was  necessarily  immense. 


CHAPTER  II. 

IN  his  time,  Denton  Offutt  was  a  man  of  substance ; 
an  enterprising  and  adventurous  merchant,  trading  be- 
tween the  up-river  settlements  and  the  city  of  New 
Orleans,  and  fitting  out  frequent  flat-boat  expeditions  to 
that  cosmopolitan  port,  where  the  French  voyageur  and 
the  rude  hunter  that  trapped  the  beaver  on  the  Osage  and 
Missouri,  met  the  polished  old-world  exile,  and  the 
tongues  of  France,  Spain,  and  England  made  babel  in 
the  streets.  In  view  of  his  experience,  it  is  not  too  ex- 
travagant to  picture  Denton  Offutt  as  a  backwoods 
Ulysses,  wise  beyond  the  home-keeping  pioneers  about 

him — 

"  Forever  roaming  with  a  hungry  heart," 

bargaining  with  the  Indians,  and  spoiling  them,  doubt- 
less, as  was  the  universal  custom  in  those  times ;  learn- 
ing the  life  of  the  wild  Mississippi  towns,  with  their  law- 
less frolics,  deep  potations,  and  reckless  gambling;  meet- 
ing under  his  own  roof-tree  the  many-negroed  planter 
of  the  sugar-coast,  and  the  patriarchal  Creole  of  Louis- 
iana;  ruling  the  boatman  who  managed  his  craft,  and 
defying  the  steamboat  captain  that  swept  by  the  slow 
broad-horn  with  his  stately  palace  of  paint  and  gilding; 
with  his  body  inured  to  toil  and  privation,  and  with  all 
3  (25) 


26          LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

his  wits  sharpened  by  traffic;  such,  no  doubt,  was  Denton 
Offutt,  who  had  seen 

"  Cities  of  men, 

And  manners,  climates,  councils,  goyernments," 

and  such  was  one  of  Lincoln's  earliest  friends.  He  quick- 
ly discovered  the  sterling  qualities  of  honesty  and  fidelity, 
and  the  higher  qualities  of  intellect  which  lay  hid  under 
the  young  Kentuckian's  awkward  exterior,  and  he  at 
once  took  Lincoln  into  his  employment.  He  was  now 
about  sending  another  flat-boat  to  New  Orleans,  and  he 
engaged  Lincoln,  and  the  husband  of  one  of  Lincoln's 
step-sisters,  together  with  their  comrade,  John  Hanks,* 
to  take  charge  of  his  craft  for  the  voyage  from  Beards- 
town,  in  Illinois,  to  the  Crescent  City. 

In  this  winter  of  1830-31,  a  deep  snow,  long  remem- 
bered in  Illinois,  covered  the  whole  land  for  many  weeks, 
and  did  not  disappear  until  the  first  of  March,  when  the 
waters  of  the  thaw  inundated  the  country.  Overland 
travel  from  Macon  county  to  Beardstown  was  rendered 
impossible ;  Lincoln,  and  his  relative,  therefore,  took  a 
canoe  and  descended  the  Sangamon  river  to  Springfield, 
where  they  found  OfFutt.  He  had  not  succeeded  in 
getting  a  flat-boat  at  Beardstown,  as  he  expected  ;  but 
with  innumerable  flat-boats  growing  up  in  their  primal 
element  of  timber  about  him,  he  was  not  the  man  to  be 
baffled  by  the  trifling  consideration  that  he  had  no  flat- 
boat  built.  He  offered  to  Lincoln  and  each  of  his 

*  Now  a  well  known  railroad  man  in  Illinois. 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  27 

friends,  twelve  dollars  a  month  for  the  time  they  should 
be  occupied  in  getting  out  lumber,  and  making  the 
boat.  The  offer  was  accepted.  The  ax  did  its  work  ;  the 
planks  were  sawed  with  a  whip-saw  ;  Denton's  ark  was 
put  together,  and  the  trip  to  New  Orleans  triumphantly 
and  profitably  made. 

On  his  return  to  Illinois,  Lincoln  found  that  his  father 
had  (in  pursuance  of  a  previous  intention)  removed 
from  Macon,  and  was  now  living  in  Coles  county.  His 
relative  rejoined  his  family  there ;  but  New  Salem,  on 
the  Sangamon  river,  became  the  home  of  Lincoln,  whose 
"  location  "  there  was  accidental  rather  than  otherwise. 
He  was  descending  the  river  with  another  flat-boat  for 
Offutt,  and  near  New  Salem  grounded  on  a  dam.  An 
old  friend  and  ardent  admirer,  who  made  his  acquaint- 
ance on  this  occasion,  says  that  Lincoln  was  standing  in 
the  water  on  the  dam,  when  he  first  caught  sight  of 
him,  devoting  all  his  energies  to  the  release  of  the  boat. 
His  dress  at  this  time  consisted  of  a  pair  of  blue  jeans 
trowsers  indefinitely  rolled  up,  a  cotton  shirt,  striped 
white  and  blue,  (of  the  sort  known  in  song  and  tradition, 
as  hicJcory^)  and  a  buckeye-chip  hat  for  which  a  demand 
of  twelve  and  a  half  cents  would  have  been  exorbitant. 

The  future  president  failed  to  dislodge  his  boat; 
though  he  did  adopt  the  ingenious  expedient  of  lighten- 
ing it  by  boring  a  hole  in  the  end  that  hung  over  the 
dam  and  letting  out  the  water — an  incident  which  Mr. 
Douglas  humorously  turned  to  account  in  one  of  his 
speeches.  The  boat  stuck  there  stubborn,  immovable. 


28         LIFE    AND   SPEECHES   OP   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

Offutt,  as  has  been  seen,  was  a  man  of  resource  and 
decision.  He  came  ashore  from  his  flat-boat  and  reso- 
lutely rented  the  very  mill  of  which  the  dam  had  caused 
his  disaster,  together  with  an  old  store-room,  which  he 
filled  with  a  stock  of  goods,  and  gave  in  the  clerkly 
charge  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  with  the  munificent  salary 
of  fifteen  dollars  a  month. 

Lincoln  had  already  made  his  first  speech.  General 
W.  L.  D.  Ewing,  and  a  politician  named  Posey,  who  after- 
ward achieved  notoriety  in  the  Black  Hawk  war,  had 
addressed  the  freemen  of  Macon  the  year  previous,  "  on 
the  issues  of  the  day."  Mr.  Posey  had,  however,  in 
violation  of  venerable  precedent  and  sacred  etiquette, 
failed  to  invite  the  sovereigns  to  drink  something.  They 
were  justly  indignant,  and  persuaded  Lincoln  to  reply, 
in  the  expectation  that  he  would  possibly  make  himself 
offensive  to  Posey.  Lincoln,  however,  took  the  stump 
with  characteristic  modesty,  and  begging  his  friends  not 
to  laugh  if  he  broke  down,  treated  very  courteously  the 
two  speakers  who  had  preceded  him,  discussed  questions 
of  politics,  and  in  his  peroration  eloquently  pictured  the 
future  of  Illinois.  There  was  sense  and  reason  in  his 
arguments,  and  his  imaginative  flight  tickled  the  State 
pride  of  the  Illinoians.  It  was  declared  that  Lincoln 
had  made  the  best  speech  of  the  day;  and  he,  to  his  great 
astonishment,  found  himself  a  prophet  among  those  of  his 
own  household,  while  his  titled  fellow-orator  cordially 
complimented  his  performance. 

At  New  Salem,  he   now  found   the  leisure  and  the 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  29 

opportunity  to  initiate  a  system  of  self-education.  At 
last,  he  had  struggled  to  a  point,  where  he  could  not 
only  take  breath,  but  could  stoop  and  drink  from  those 
springs  of  knowledge,  which  a  hopeless  poverty,  inces- 
sant toil,  and  his  roving,  uncertain  life,  had,  till  then, 
forbidden  to  his  lips. 

There  seems  never  to  have  been  any  doubt  of  his  abil- 
ity among  Lincoln's  acquaintances,  any  more  than  there 
was  a  doubt  of  his  honesty,  his  generosity,  and  gentle- 
heartedness.  When,  therefore,  he  began  to  make  rapid 
progress  in  his  intellectual  pursuits,  it  surprised  none 
of  them — least  of  all,  Lincoln's  shrewd  patron,  Offutt, 
who  had  been  known  to  declare,  with  pardonable  enthu- 
siasm, that  Lincoln  was  the  smartest  man  in  the  United 
States. 

The  first  branch  of  learning  which  he  took  up,  was 
English  grammar,  acquiring  that  science  from  the  dry 
and  meager  treatise  of  Kirkham.  The  book  was  not  to 
be  had  in  the  immediate  vicinity,  and  Lincoln  walked 
seven  or  eight  miles  to  borrow  a  copy.  He  then  devoted 
himself  to  the  study  with  the  whole  strength  of  his  reso- 
lute nature  ;  and  in  three  weeks  he  had  gained  a  fair 
practical  knowledge  of  the  grammar.  No  doubt  the 
thing  was  hard  to  the  uncultivated  mind,  though  that 
mind  was  of  great  depth  and  fertility.  One  of  his 
friends*  relates  that  Lincoln  used  to  take  him  aside,  and 
require  explanations  of  the  sententious  Kirkham,  when- 
ever he  visited  New  Salem. 

<"L.  M.  Green,  Esq.,  of  Petersburgh,  Illinois. 


30          LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

This  young  backwoodsman  had  the  stubborn  notion  that 
because  the  Lincolns  had  always  been  people  of  excel- 
lent sense,  he,  a  Lincoln,  might  become  a  person  of  dis- 
tinction. He  had  talked,  he  said,  with  men  who  were 
regarded  as  great,  and  he  did  not  see  where  they  differed 
so  much  from  others.  He  reasoned,  probably,  that 
the  secret  of  their  success  lay  in  the  fact  of  original 
capacity,  and  untiring  industry.  He  was  conscious  of 
his  own  powers  ;  he  was  a  logician,  and  could  not  resist 
logical  conclusions.  If  he  studied,  why  might  not  he 
achieve  ? 

And  Kirkham  fell  before  him.  One  incident  of  his 
study,  was  a  dispute  with  the  learned  man  of  the  place, 
— a  very  savant  among  the  unlettered  pioneers — in  re- 
gard to  a  grammatical  nicety,  and  the  question  being 
referred  to  competent  authority,  it  was  decided  in  Lin- 
coln's favor,  to  his  pride  and  exultation. 

Concluding  his  grammatical  studies  with  Kirkham,  he 
next  turned  his  attention  to  mathematics,  and  took  up  a 
work  on  surveying,  with  which  he  made  himself  thor- 
oughly acquainted. 

So  great  was  his  ardor  in  study,  at  this  time,  that 
shrewd  suspicions  with  regard  to  Offutt's  clerk  got 
abroad ;  the  honest  neighbors  began  to  question  whether 
one  who  would  voluntarily  spend  all  his  leisure  in 


-"poring  over  miserable  books," 


could  be  altogether  right  in  his  mind. 

The  peculiar  manner  in  which  he  afterward  pursued 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.         31 

his  law  studies,  was  not  calculated  to  allay  popular  feel- 
ing. He  bought  an  old  copy  of  Blackstone,  one  day,  at 
auction,  in  Springfield,  and  on  his  return  to  New  Salem, 
attacked  the  work  with  characteristic  energy. 

His  favorite  place  of  study  was  a  wooded  knoll  near 
New  Salem,  where  he  threw  himself  under  a  wide-spread- 
ing oak,  and  expansively  made  a  reading  desk  of  the 
hillside.  Here  he  would  pore  over  Blackstone  day  after 
day,  shifting  his  position  as  the  sun  rose  and  sank, 
so  as  to  keep  in  the  shade,  and  utterly  unconscious  of 
everything  but  the  principles  of  common  law.  People 
went  by,  and  he  took  no  account  of  them  ;  the  saluta- 
tions of  acquaintances  were  returned  with  silence,  or  a 
vacant  stare;  and  altogether  the  manner  of  the  absorbed 
student  was  not  unlike  that  of  one  distraught. 

Since  that  day,  his  habits  of  study  have  changed  some- 
what, but  his  ardor  remains  unabated,  and  he  is  now  re- 
garded as  one  of  the  best  informed,  as  he  is  certainly  the 
ablest,  man  in  Illinois. 

When  practicing  law,  before  his  election  to  Congress, 
a  copy  of  Burns  was  his  inseparable  companion  on  the 
circuit ;  and  this  he  perused  so  constantly,  that  it  is  said 
he  has  now  by  heart  every  line  of  his  favorite  poet.  He 
is  also  a  diligent  student  of  Shakspeare,  "to  know  whom 
is  a  liberal  education." 

The  bent  of  his  mind,  however,  is  mathematical  and 
metaphysical,  and  he  is  therefore  pleased  with  the  abso- 
lute and  logical  method  of  Poe's  tales  and  sketches,  in 
which  the  problem  of  mystery  is  given,  and  wrought  out 


32  LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

into  every-day  facts  by  processes  of  cunning  analysis.  It 
is  said  that  he  suffers  no  year  to  pass  without  the  perusal 
of  this  author. 

Books,  of  all  sorts,  the  eager  student  devoured  •with  an 
insatiable  appetite;  and  newspapers  were  no  less  precious 
to  him.  The  first  publication  for  which  he  ever  sub- 
scribed, was  the  Louisville  Journal,  which  he  paid  for 
when  he  could  secure  the  intellectual  luxury  only  at 
the  expense  of  physical  comfort. 

It  was  a  day  of  great  rejoicing  with  Lincoln,  when 
President  Jackson  appointed  him  postmaster  at  New 
Salem.  He  was  a  Whig,  but  the  office  was  of  so  little 
pecuniary  significance,  that  it  was  bestowed  irrespective 
of  politics.  Lincoln,  indeed,  was  the  only  person  in 
the  community  whose  accomplishments  were  equal  to 
the  task  of  making  out  the  mail  returns  for  the  Depart- 
ment. 

An  acquaintance  says  that  the  Presidency  can  never 
make  our  candidate  happier  than  the  post-office  did 
then.  He  foresaw  unlimited  opportunities  for  reading 
newspapers,  and  of  satisfying  his  appetite  for  knowl- 
edge. 

But  it  was  not  through  reading  alone  that  Lincoln 
cultivated  his  intellect.  The  grave  and  practical  Ameri- 
can mind  has  always  found  entertainment  and  profit 
in  disputation,  and  the  debating  clubs  are  what  every 
American  youth  is^subject  to.  They  are  useful  in  many 
ways.  They  safely  vent  the  mental  exuberance  of 
youth  ;  those  whom  destiny  intended  for  the  bar  and 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          33 

the  Senate,  they  assist;  those  who  have  a  mistaken  voca- 
tion to  oratory,  they  mercifully  extinguish. 

Even  in  that  day,  and  that  rude  country,  where  learn- 
ing was  a  marvelous  and  fearful  exception,  the  debating 
school  flourished,  in  part  as  a  literary  institution,  and  in 
part  as  a  rustic  frolic. 

Lincoln  delighted  in  practicing  polemics,  as  it  was 
called,  and  used  to  walk  six  and  seven  miles  through 
the  woods  to  attend  the  disputations  in  his  neighbor- 
hood. Of  course,  many  of  the  debates  were  infinitely 
funny,  for  the  disputants  were,  frequently,  men  without 
education.  Here,  no  doubt,  Lincoln  stored  his  mind 
with  anecdote  and  comic  illustration,  while  he  delight- 
ed his  auditors  with  his  own  wit  and  reason,  and  added 
to  his  growing  popularity. 

This  popularity  had  been  early  founded  by  a  stroke  of 
firmness  and  bravery  on  Lincoln's  part,  when  he  first 
came  into  Sangamon  county. 

He  had  returned  from  that  famous  voyage  made  with 
Offutt's  impromptu  flat-boat  to  New  Orleans,  and  de- 
scending the  Sangamon  river,  had,  as  has  been  already 
related,  fixed  upon  the  little  village  of  New  Salem,*  by 
fortuity  rather  than  intention,  as  his  future  home. 
Nevertheless,  he  had  first  to  undergo  an  ordeal  to 
which  every  new  comer  was  subjected,  before  his  resi- 
dence could  be  generally  acknowledged.  Then,  when  it 
was  much  more  necessary  to  be  equal«parts  of  horse  and 

*  Now  Tetersburgh. 


34         LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OP   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

alligator,  and  to  be  able  to  vanquish  one's  weight  in 
wild  cats,  than  now,  there  flourished,  in  the  region  of 
New  Salem,  a  band  of  jolly,  roystering  blades,  calling 
themselves  "  Clary's  Grove  Boys,"  who  not  only  gave 
the  law  to  the  neighborhood,  as  Regulators,  but  united 
judicial  to  legislative  functions,  by  establishing  them- 
selves a  tribunal  to  try  the  stuff  of  every  one  who  came 
into  that  region.  They  were,  at  once,  the  protectors  and 
the  scourge  of  the  wh«le  country-side,  and  must  have 
been  some  such  company  as  that  of  Brom  Bones,  in 
Sleepy  Hollow,  upon  whom  the  "  neighbors  all  looked 
with  a  mixture  of  awe,  admiration,  and  good-will." 
Their  mode  of  receiving  a  stranger  was  to  appoint  some 
one  of  their  number  to  wrestle  with  him,  fight  with  him, 
or  run  a  foot-race  with  him,  according  to  their  pleasure, 
and  his  appearance. 

As  soon  as  young  Lincoln  appeared,  the  "  Clary's 
Grove  Boys"  determined  to  signalize  their  prowess  anew 
by  a  triumph  over  a  stalwart  fellow,  who  stood  six  feet 
three  inches  without  stockings.  The  leader  and  cham- 
pion of  their  band,  (one  Jack  Armstrong,  who  seems 
himself  to  have  been  another  Brom  Bones,)  challenged 
Lincoln  to  a  wrestling-match.  When  the  encounter  took 
place,  the  "  Clary's  Grove  Boy"  found  that  he  had  de- 
cidedly the  worst  half  of  the  affair,  and  the  bout  would 
have  ended  in  his  ignominious  defeat,  had  not  all  his 
fellow-boys  come  to  his  assistance.  Lincoln  then  refused 
to  continue  the  unequal  struggle.  He  would  wrestle 
with  them  fairly,  or  he  would  run  a  foot-race,  or  if  any 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          35 

of  them  desired  to  fight,  he  generously  offered  to  thrash 
that  particular  individual.  He  looked  every  word  he 
said,  and  none  of  the  Boys  saw  fit  to  accept  his  offer. 
Jack  Armstrong  was  willing  to  call  the  match  drawn  ; 
and  Lincoln's  fearless  conduct  had  already  won  the 
hearts  of  his  enemies.  He  was  invited  to  become  one 
of  their  company.  His  popularity  was  assured.  The 
Boys  idolized  him,  and  when  the  Black  Hawk  war  broke 
out,  he  was  chosen  their  captain,  and  remained  at  their 
head  throughout  the  campaign.  Their  favor  still  pur- 
sued him,  and,  at  the  close  of  the  war,  he  was  elected  to 
the  Legislature,  through  the  influence  created  by  his 
famous  wrestling-match. 

Many  of  the  Boys  are  now  distinguished  citizens  of 
Illinois,  and  are  among  Lincoln's  warmest  friends ; 
though  they  acknowledge  that  if  he  had  shown  signs 
of  cowardice  when  they  came  to  the  rescue  of  their 
champion,  it  would  have  fared  grievously  with  him. 

Indeed,  this  seems  to  have  been  one  of  the  most  sig- 
nificant incidents  of  his  early  life.  It  gave  him  reputa- 
tion for  courage  necessary  in  a  new  country,  and  opened 
a  career  to  him  which  his  great  qualities  have  enabled 
him  to  pursue  with  brilliance  and  success.* 


*  Jack  Armstrong,  in  particular,  became  a  fast  friend  of  Lincoln.  It  is  rela- 
ted that  ho  bestowed  a  terrible  pummeling  on  a  person  who  once  ventured  to 
speak  slightingly  of  Lincoln  in  his  presence.  Afterward,  Lincoln  h;id  an 
opportunity  to  make  a  full  return  to  Armstrong  for  his  friendship.  A  man  had 
been  killed  in  a  riot  at  camp-meeting,  in  Menard  county,  and  suspicion  fell  upon 
a  son  of  Jack  Armstrong — a  wild  young  scapegrace,  who  was  known  to  have 
taken  part  in  the  affair.  He  was  arrested,  and  brought  to  trial  for  murder.  Lin- 
coln, who  seems  to  have  believed  firmly  in  the  young  man's  innocence,  volun- 


CHAPTER  III. 

IN  1832,  Black  Hawk's  war  broke  out.  la  the  light  of 
history,  this  war  seems  to  have  been  a  struggle  involun- 
tarily commenced  by  the  Indians  against  the  white  set- 
tlers. A  treaty  had  been  made  by  the  Sacs  and  Foxes, 
ceding  to  the  United  States  all  the  land  east  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi— a  treaty  which  the  Sac  chief,  Black  Hawk,  de- 
clared to  be  illegal.  A  war  with  the  Sacs  ensued,  which 
was  terminated  by  treaty  in  1825.  Meanwhile  Illinois  had 
been  admitted  to  the  Union,  and  the  country  had  filled  up 
with  whites,  who  extended  the  lines  of  their  settlements 
around  the  country  of  the  Indians,  and  pressed  closer 
and  closer  upon  them.  Outrages,  on  one  part  and  on 
the  other,  were  of  constant  occurrence ;  and  in  revenge 
for  some  wrong,  a  party  of  Chippeway  Indians  fired  upon 
a  keel-boat  conveying  stores  to  Fort  Snelling.  Through 
mistake  or  injustice,  Black  Hawk  was  arrested  for  this, 
and  lay  imprisoned  a  whole  year  before  he  could  be 
brought  to  trial  and  acquitted.  After  his  release,  it 


teered  in  his  defense,  and  throwing  aside  the  well-connected  links  of  circum- 
stantial evidence  against  him,  made  a  most  touching  and  eloquent  appeal  to  the 
sympathies  of  tho  jury.  There  was  that  confidence  in  Lincoln,  that  absolute 
faith,  that  he  would  never  say  anything  but  the  truth,  to  achieve  any  end,  that 
the  jury  listened  and  were  convinced.  Young  Armstrong  was  acquitted  ;  and 
Lincoln  refused  to  accept  any  reward  for  his  defense. 
(86) 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  37 

was  believed  that  he  engaged  in  negotiations  to  unite 
all  the  Indians,  from  Kock  River  to  the  Gulf  of  Mex- 
ico, in  a  general  war  upon  the  whites.  The  alarm,  of 
course,  was  very  great,  and  active  preparations  for  hos- 
tilities were  made.  Regular  forces  were  marched  against 
the  Indians  at  Rock  Island,  and  large  bodies  of  militia 
were  called  into  the  field.  It  appears  that  Black  Hawk 
never  succeeded  in  rallying  about  him  more  than  two 
or  three  hundred  warriors  of  his  tribe  ;  the  Indians  being 
desirous  of  peace,  and  willing  to  abide  by  the  treaty 
of  the  chief  Keokuk,  who  favored  the  cession  of  land. 
Indeed,  Black  Hawk  himself  attempted  to  treat  with 
the  whites  several  times  when  he  met  them,  and  only 
fought  after  his  flags  of  truce  had  been  fired  upon.  The 
war  was  brought  to  a  close  by  the  battle  of  Bad-Ax, 
in  which  glorious  action  a  great  number  of  squaws  and 
papooses,  not  to  mention  several  warriors,  were  killed. 
The  Indians  then  retreated  beyond  the  Mississippi,  and 
Black  Hawk  was  brought  a  prisoner  into  the  camp  of 
the  whites.  He  made  the  grand  tour  of  the  Atlantic 
cities,  where  he  received  the  usual  attentions  bestowed 
upon  lions  of  every  tribe,  and  returning  to  the  West  a 
sadder  and  a  wiser  Indian,  passed  into  oblivion. 

There  can  not  be  any  doubt  that  the  war  was  a  very 
serious  matter  to  the  people  who  were  engaged  in  it; 
and  there  is  as  little  doubt  that  their  panic  exaggerated 
their  danger,  and  rendered  them  merciless  in  their  de- 
termination to  expel  the  Indians. 

Offutt's  business  had  long  been  failing,  and  at  the 


38  LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

time  the  war  broke  out,  Lincoln  bad  the  leisure,  as  well 
as  the  patriotism,  to  join  one  of  the  volunteer  companies 
which  was  formed  in  the  neighborhood  of  New  Salem. 
To  his  unbounded  surprise  and  satisfaction,  he  was 
chosen  captain  by  his  fellow-soldiers.  The  place  of 
rendezvous  was  at  Richland,  and  as  soon  as  the  mem- 
bers of  the  company  met,  the  election  took  place.  It 
;as  expected  that  the  captaincy  would  be  conferred  on 
man  of  much  wealth  and  consequence  among  the 
;ople,  for  whom  Lincoln  had  once  worked.  He  was 
a  harsh  and  exacting  employer,  and  had  treated  the 
young  man,  whom  everybody  else  loved  and  esteemed, 
with  the  greatest  rigor;  a  course  which  had  not  increased 
his  popularity.  The  method  of  election  was  for  the 
candidates  to  step  out  of  the  ranks,  when  the  electors 
advanced  and  joined  the  man  whom  they  chose  to  lead 
them.  Three-fourths  of  the  company  at  once  went  to 
Lincoln;  and  when  it  was  seen  how  strongly  the  tide 
was  set  in  his  favor,  the  friends  of  the  rival  candi- 
date deserted  him,  one  after  another,  until  he  was  left 
standing  almost  alone.  He  was  unspeakably  mortified 
and  disappointed,  while  Lincoln's  joy  was  proportionably 
great. 

The  latter  served  three  months  in  the  Black  Hawk 
war,  and  made  acquaintance  with  the  usual  campaign- 
ing experiences,  but  was  in  no  battle.  He  still  owns 
the  lands  in  Iowa  that  he  located  with  warrants  for  ser- 
vice performed  in  the  war. 

An  incident  of  the  campaign,  in  which  Lincoln  is 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          39 

concerned,*  illustrates  a  trait  of  his  character  no  less  \ 
prominent  than  his  qualities  of  integrity  and  truth. 
One  day  an  old  Indian  wandered  into  Lincoln's  camp, 
and  was  instantly  seized  by  his  men.  The  general 
opinion  was  that  he  ought  to  be  put  to  death.  They 
were  in  the  field  for  the  purpose  of  killing  Indians,  and 
to  spare  the  slaughter  of  one  that  Providence  had  de* 
livered  into  their  hands  was  something  of  which  these 
honest  pioneers  could  not  abide  the  thought.  It  was 
to  little  purpose  that  the  wretched  aborigine  showed  a 
letter  signed  by  General  Cass,  and  certifying  him  to  bo 
not  only  a  model  of  all  the  savage  virtues,  but  a  sincere 
friend  of  the  whites.  He  was  about  to  be  sacrificed, 
when  Lincoln  boldly  declared  that  the  sacrifice  should 
not  take  place.  He  was  at  once  accused  of  cowardice, 
and  of  a  desire  to  conciliate  the  Indians.  Nevertheless, 
he  stood  firm,  proclaiming  that  even  barbarians  would  not 
kill  a  helpless  prisoner.  If  any  one  thought  him  a  cow- 
ard, let  him  step  out  and  be  satisfied  of  his  mistake,  in 
any  way  he  chose.  As  to  this  poor  old  Indian,  he  had 
no  doubt  he  was  all  that  the  letter  of  General  Casa 
affirmed;  he  declared  that  they  should  kill  him  before 
they  touched  the  prisoner.  His  argument,  in  fine,  was 
so  convincing,  and  his  manner  so  determined,  that  the 
copper-colored  ally  of  the  whites  was  suffered  to  go 
his  ways,  and  departed  out  of  the  hostile  camp  of  his 
friends  unhurt. 


*"The  authority  for  this  anecdote  is  Mr.  William  G.  Green,  a  tried  and  inti- 
mate friend  of  Lincoln  during  early  manhood.  < 


40         LIFE  AND   SPEECHES   OP   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

After  his  return  from  the  wars,  Lincoln  determined  to 
test  the  strength  of  his  popularity,  by  offering  himself 
as  a  candidate  for  the  Legislature.  Added  to  the  good- 
will which  had  carried  him  into  the  captaincy,  he  had 
achieved  a  warmer  place  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  had 
followed  his  fortunes  during  the  war,  by  his  bravery,  so- 
cial qualities,  and  uprightness.  He  was  warm-hearted  and 
good-natured,  and  told  his  stories,  of  which  he  had  num- 
bers, in  better  style  than  any  other  man  in  the  camp.  No 
one  was  so  fleet  of  foot;  and  in  those  wrestlings  which 
daily  enlivened  the  tedium  of  camp  life,  he  was  never 
thrown  but  once,  and  then  by  a  man  of  superior  science 
who  was  not  his  equal  in  strength.  These  were  qualities 
which  commended  him  to  the  people,  and  made  him  the 
favorite  officer  of  the  battalion. 

Parties,  at  this  time,  were  distinguished  as  Adams 
parties  and  Jackson  parties,  and  in  Lincoln's  county  the 
Jackson  men  were  vastly  in  the  ascendant.  He  was  a 
stanch  Adams  man,  and,  being  comparatively  unknown 
in  the  remoter  parts  of  the  county,  was  defeated.  In  his 
own  neighborhood  the  vote  was  almost  unanimous  in  his 
favor;  though  he  had  only  arrived  from  the  war  and 
announced  himself  as  a  candidate  ten  days  before  the 
election.  Indeed,  he  received,  at  this  election,  one 
more  vote  in  his  precinct  than  both  of  the  rival  candi- 
dates for  Congress  together.* 


*The  following  is  the  vote  taken  from  the  poll-book  in  Springfield:  For 
Congress— ^Jonathan  H.  Pugh,  179,  and  Joseph  Duucan,  97.  For  Legislature — 
Lincoln,  277. 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  41 

Defeated,  but  far  from  dismayed,  Lincoln  once  more 
turned  his  attention  to  business.  He  was  still  poor,  for 
though  thrifty  enough,  he  never  could  withstand  the 
appeals  of  distress,  nor  sometimes  refuse  to  become 
security  for  those  who  asked  the  use  of  his  name.  His 
first  surveying  had  been  done  with  a  grape-vine  instead 
of  a  chain,  and  having  indorsed  a  note  which  was  not 
paid,  his  compass  was  seized  and  sold.  One  James  Short 
bought  it  and  returned  it  to  Lincoln.  The  surveyor  of 
Sangamon  county,  John  Calhoun,  (since  notorious  for 
his  candle-box  concealment  of  the  election  returns  ir< 
Kansas,)  deputed  to  Lincoln  that  part  of  the  county  in 
which  he  resided,  and  he  now  assumed  the  active  prac- 
tice of  surveying,  and  continued  to  live  upon  the  slen- 
der fees  of  his  office  until  1834,  when  he  was  elected  to  the 
Legislature  by  the  largest  vote  cast  for  any  candidate. 

Before  this  election  Lincoln  had  engaged  and  failed  in 
merchandising  on  his  own  account. 

It  is  supposed  that  it  was  at  New  Salem  that  Lincoln, 
while  a  "  clerk  |;  in  Offutt's  store,  first  saw  Stephen  A. 
Douglas,  and,  probably,  the  acquaintance  was  renewed 
during  Lincoln's  proprietorship  of  the  store  which  he 
afterward  bought  in  the  same  place.* 

*  Lincoln  expressly  stated,  in  reply  to  some  badinage  of  Douglas,  during  tk! 
debates  of  185S,  that  he  never  kept  a  grocery  anywhere.  Out  West,  a  grocer*! 
is  understood  to  be  a  place  where  the  chief  article  of  commerce  is  whisky. 
Lincoln's  establishment  was,  in  the  Western  sense,  a  store;  that  is,  he  sold  tea, 
coffee,  sugar,  powder,  lead,  and  other  luxuries  and  necessaries  of  pioneer  exist- 
ence. Very  possibly  his  store  was  not  without  the  "elixir  of  life,"  with  which 
nearly  everybody  renewed  the  flower  of  youth  in  those  days  ;  though  this  is  not 
a  matter  of  ato<>lute  history,  nor  perhaps  of  vital  consequence. 

4 


42         LIFE   AND  SPEECHES   OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

One  Reuben  Radford  was  Lincoln's  predecessor.  He 
had  fallen,  by  some  means,  into  disfavor  with  Clary's 
Grove  Boys,  who,  one  evening,  took  occasion  to  break  in 
the  windows  of  his  establishment.  Reuben  was  discour- 
aged. Perhaps  it  would  not  bo  going  too  far  to  allude 
to  his  situation  as  discouraging.  At  any  rate,  he  told  a 
young  farmer,*  who  came  to  trade  with  him  the  next 
day,  that  he  was  going  to  close  out  his  business.  What 
would  Mr.  Green  give  him  for  his  stock  ?  Mr.  Green 
looked  about  him  and  replied,  only  half  in  earnest,  Four 
hundred  dollars.  The  offer  was  instantly  accepted,  and 
the  business  transferred  to  Mr.  Green.  On  the  follow- 
ing day  Lincoln  chanced  to  come  in,  and  being  informed 
of  the  transaction,  proposed  that  he  and  Green  should 
invoice  the  stock,  and  see  how  much  he  had  made.  They 
found  that  it  was  worth  about  six  hundred  dollars,  and 
Lincoln  gave  Mr.  Green  a  hundred  and  twenty-five  dol- 
lars for  his  bargain,  while  Green  indorsed  the  notes  of 
Lincoln  and  one  Berry,  to  Radford  for  the  remaining 
four  hundred.  Berry  was  a  thriftless  soul,  it  seems,  and 
after  a  while  the  store  fell  into  a  chronic  decay,  and,  in 
the  idiom  of  the  region,  finally  winked  out. 

Lincoln  was  moneyless,  having  previously  invested 
his  whole  fortune  in  a  surveyor's  compass  and  books, 
and  Berry  was  uncertain.  Young  Green  was  compelled 
to  pay  the  notes  given  to  Radford.  He  afterward  re- 
moved to  Tennessee,  where  he  married,  and  was  living 

*  Mr.  W.  T.  Green,  no>v  one  of  the  mpst  Influential  and  wealthy  men  of  his 
part  of  Illinois. 


m 

LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  43 

in  forgetfulness  of  his  transaction  with  Lincoln,  when 
he  one  day  received  a  letter  from  that  person,  stating 
he  was  now  able  to  pay  back  to  Green  the  amount  for 
which  he  had  indorsed.  Lincoln  was  by  this  time  in  the 
practice  of  the  law,  and  it  was  with  the  first  earnings  of 
his  profession,  that  he  discharged  this  debt,  principal 
and  interest. 

The  moral  need  not  be  insisted  on,  and  this  instance 
is  not  out  of  the  order  of  Abraham  Lincoln's  whole  life. 
That  the  old  neighbors  and  friends  of  such  a  man  should 
regard  him  with  an  affection  and  faith  little  short  of 
man-worship,  is  the  logical  result  of  a  life  singularly 
pure,  and  an  integrity  without  flaw. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

IT  is  seen  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  first  elected  to  a 
seat  in  the  Legislature,  in  1834,  in  the  face  of  the  un- 
popularity of  his  political  principles,  by  a  larger  vote 
than  that  given  to  any  other  candidate.  As  a  legislator 
he  served  his  constituents  so  well  that  he  was  three  times 
afterward  returned  to  his  place;  in  1836,  in  1838,  and 
in  1840.  He  then  terminated  his  legislative  career  by  a 
positive  refusal  to  be  again  a  candidate. 

The  period  embraced  by  the  eight  years  in  which 
Lincoln  represented  Sangamon  county,  was  one  of  the 
greatest  material  activity  in  Illinois.  So  early  as  1820, 
the  young  State  was  seized  with  the  "  generous  rage  " 
for  public  internal  improvements,  then  prevalent  in  New 
York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Ohio,  and  in  its  sessions  for  a 
score  of  succeeding  years,  the  Legislature  was  occupied 
by  the  discussion  of  various  schemes  for  enhancing  the 
prosperity  of  the  State.  The  large  canal  uniting  the 
waters  of  Lake  Michigan  and  the  Illinois  river  was  com- 
pleted at  a  cost  of  more  than  eight  millions.  By  a 
Board  of  Commissioners  of  Public  Works,  specially  cre- 
ated, provisions  were  made  for  expensive  improvements 
of  the  rivers  Wabash,  Illinois,  Rock,  Kaskaskia,  and 

Little  Wabash,  and  the  great  Western  mail  route  from 
(44) 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.          45 

Vincennes  to  St.  Louis.  Under  the  charge  of  the  same 
Board,  six  railroads  connecting  principal  points  were 
projected,  and  appropriations  made  for  their  completion 
at  an  immense  outlay. 

One  effect  of  a  policy  so  wild  and  extravagant  was  to 
sink  the  State  in  debt.  Another  was  to  attract  vast 
emigration,  and  fill  up  her  broad  prairies  with  settlers. 
Individuals  were  ruined;  the  corporate  State  became 
embarrassed ;  but  benefits  have  resulted  in  a  far  greater 
degree  than  could  have  been  hoped  when  the  crash  first 
came.  It  is  not  yet  time  to  estimate  the  ultimate  good 
to  be  derived  from  these  improvements,  though  the  im- 
mediate evil  has  been  tangible  enough. 

The  name  of  Abraham  Lincoln  is  not  found  recorded 
in  favor  of  the  more  visionary  of  these  schemes ;  but  he 
has  always  favored  public  improvements,  and  his  voice 
was  for  whatever  project  seemed  feasible  and  practical. 
During  his  first  term  of  service,  he  was  a  member  of  the 
Committee  on  Public  Accounts  and  Expenditures.  He 
voted  for  a  bill  to  incorporate  agricultural  societies ;  for 
the  improvement  of  public  roads  ;  for  the  incorporation 
of  various  institutions  of  learning ;  for  the  construction 
of  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal ;  he  always  fostered 
the  interests  of  public  education,  and  favored  low  salaries 
for  public  officials.  In  whatever  pertained  to  the  local 
benefit  of  his  own  county,  he  was  active  and  careful ; 
but  his  record  on  this  subject  is  of  little  interest  to  the 
general  reader. 

Lincoln's   voice  was  ever  for  measures  that  relieved 


46          LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

the  struggling  poor  man  from  pecuniary  or  political 
difficulties;  he  had  himself  experienced  these  difficul- 
ties. He  therefore  supported  resolutions  for  the  re- 
moval of  the  property  qualification  in  franchise,  and  for 
the  granting  of  pre-emption  rights  .  to  settlers  on  the 
public  lands.  He  was  the  author  of  a  measure  permit- 
ting Revolutionary  pensioners  to  loan  their  pension 
money  without  taxation.  He  advocated  a  bill  exempting 
from  execution  Bibles,  school-books,  and  mechanics' 
tools. 

His  first  recorded  vote  against  Stephen  A.  Douglas, 
•was  on  the  election  of  that  politician  to  the  Attorney- 
Generalship  by  the  Legislature. 

He  twice  voted  for  the  Whig  candidates  for  the  United 
States  Senate.  Otherwise  than  in  the  election  of  Sena- 
tors, State  Legislatures  were  not  then  occupied  with 
national  affairs,  and  it  is  difficult  to  find  anything  in  Mr. 
Lincoln's  legislative  history  which  is  of  great  national 
interest.  There  were  no  exciting  questions,  and  Mr. 
Lincoln's  speeches  were  few  and  brief*  He  was  twice 
the  candidate  (in  1838  and  1840)  of  the  Whig  minority 
for  Speaker  of  the  House. 

In  1836,  when  Lincoln  was  first  re-elected  to  the  Leg- 
islature, Sangamon  county,  then  of  greater  geographical 
importance  than  now,  was  represented  by  nine  members, 


*  A  protest  from  Mr.  Lincoln  appears  on  the  journal  of  the  House,  in  regard 
to  some  resolutions  which  had  passed.  In  this  protest  he  pronounces  distinctly 
against  slavery,  and  takes  the  first  public  step  toward  what  is  now  Republican 
doctrine. 


.         LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          47 

no  one  of  whom  was  less  than  six  feet  in  height — several 
of  them  considerably  exceeding  that  altitude.  This  im- 
mensity of  stature  attracted  attention,  and  the  Sanga- 
mon  members  were  at  once  nicknamed  The  Long-Nine, 
They  were  genial,  hearty-humored  fellows,  famous  whit- 
tiers,  and  distinguished  spinners  of  yarns.  They  all 
boarded  at  the  same  place,  and  being  of  gregarious 
habits,  spent  their  evenings  together.  Lincoln  was  the 
favorite  of  the  circle;  admired  for  his  gift  of  story- 
telling, and  highly  esteemed  for  his  excellent  qualities 
of  head  and  heart,  his  intellectual  shrewdness,  his  re- 
liability, his  good-nature,  and  generosity.  The  Illinois 
Legislature  then  held  its  sessions  at  Vandalia,  and  Lin- 
coln used  to  perform  his  journeys  between  New  Salem 
and  the  seat  of  government  on  foot,  though  the  remain- 
ing eight  of  the  Long-Nine  traveled  on  horseback. 

A  pleasant  story  connected  with  this  part  of  his  polit- 
ical career  is  related  by  Hon.  John  D.  Stuart.  Lincoln 
and  Stuart  were  both  candidates  for  the  Legislature  in 
1834.  Stuart's  election  was  conceded,  while  that  of  Lin- 
coln was  thought  to  be  comparatively  uncertain.  The 
two  candidates  happened  to  be  present  together  at  a  back- 
woods frolic,  when  some  disaffected  of  Stuart's  party  took 

I 
Lincoln  aside,  and   offered    to  withdraw  votes   enough 

from  Stuart  to  elect  him.  He  rejected  the  proposal,  and 
at  once  disclosed  the  scheme  to  Stuart,  declaring  that  he 
would  not  make  such  a  bargain  for  any  office. 

It  is  by  such  manly  and  generous  acts  that  Lincoln 
has  endeared  himself  to  all  his  old  neighbors.  It  may 


48  LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.         . 

be  said  of  him  without  extravagance  that  he  is  beloved 
of  all — even  by  those  against  whose  interests  he  has 
conscientiously  acted.  When  in  the  practice  of  the  law 
he  was  never  known  to  undertake  a  cause  which  he  be- 
lieved founded  in  wrong  and  injustice.  "  You  are  not 
strictly  in  the  right,"  he  said  to  a  person  who  once 
wished  him  to  bring  a  certain  suit,  and  who  now  tells 
the  story  with  profound  admiration.  "I  might  give 
the  other  parties  considerable  trouble,  and  perhaps  beat  \ 
them  at  law,  but  there  would  be  no  justice  in  it.  I  am 
sorry — I  can  not  undertake  your  case."  "I  never  knew 
Lincoln  to  do  a  mean  act  in  his  life,"  said  Stuart,  the 

'veteran  lawyer,  who  first  encouraged  Lincoln  to  adopt 
his  profession.  "  God  never  made  a  finer  man,"  ex- 
claimed the  old  backwoods-man,  Close,  when  applied  to 
for  reminiscences  of.  Lincoln.  So  by  the  testimony  of 
all,  and  in  the  memory  of  every  one  who  has  known  him, 
Lincoln  is  a  pure,  candid,  and  upright  man,  unblem- 

"*ished  by  those  vices  which  so  often  disfigure  greatness, 
utterly  incapable  of  falsehood,  and  without  one  base  or 
sordid  trait. 

During  the  Legislative  canvass  of  1834,  John  D. 
Stuart  advised  Lincoln  to  study  law,  and  after  the 
election  he  borrowed  some  of  Stuart's  books,  and  began 
to  read.  Other  warm  and  influential  friends,  (Win.  But- 
ler, the  present  Treasurer  of  State  in  Illinois,  was  one 
of  these,)  came  to  Lincoln's  material  aid  and  encour- 
agement, and  assisted  him  to  retrieve  his  early  errors 
of  generosity.  With  the  support  of  these  friends — for 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.         49 

Lincoln  is  a  man  who  could  receive  benefits  as  nobly 
as  he  conferred  them — and  the  slender  revenues  of  hia 
surveyorship,  he  struggled  through  the  term  of  his  law 
studies,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1836.  Business 
flowed  in  upon  him,  and  quitting  New  Salem,  he  took 
up  his  residence  at  Springfield,  where  he  united  his  pro- 
fessional fortunes  with  those  of  Major  Stuart.  The  two 
old  friends  remained  in  partnership  until  Stuart's  elec- 
tion to  Congress,  by  which  time  Lincoln  had  elevated 
himself  to  a  position  among  the  first  lawyers  of  the  place. 
In  the  midst  of  affairs,  however,  he  never  relaxed  his 
habits  of  study;  taking  up,  one  by  one,  the  natural 
sciences,  and  thoroughly  acquainting  himself  with  the 
abstrusest  metaphysics.  He  remains  to  this  day  a  severe 
and  indefatigable  student — never  suffering  any  subject 
to  which  he  directs  his  attention,  to  pass  without  pro- 
found investigation. 
5 


CHAPTER  V. 

now  find  Abraham  Lincoln  beginning  to  assume 
an  active  part  in  the  political  affairs  of  Illinois. 

He  is  known  to  the  Whigs  throughout  the  State,  and 
his  general  popularity  is  as  great  as  the  esteem  and  re- 
gard in  which  he  is  held  by  those  personally  acquainted 
with  him. 

The  talented  young  Whig  has  founded  his  reputation 
upon  qualities  that  make  every  man  proud  to  say  he  is 
the  friend  of  Lincoln. 

No  admirer,  who  speaks  in  his  praise,  must  pause  to 
conceal  a  stain  upon  his  good  name.  No  true  man 
falters  in  his  affection  at  the  remembrance  of  any  mean 
action  or  littleness  in  the  life  of  Lincoln. 

The  purity  of  his  reputation,  the  greatness  and  dignity 
of  his  ambition,  ennoble  every  incident  of  his  career,  and 
give  significance  to  all  the  events  of  his  past. 

It  is  true  that  simply  to  have  mauled  rails,  and  com- 
manded a  flat-boat,  is  not  to  have  performed  splendid 
actions.  But  the  fact  that  Lincoln  has  done  these  things, 
and  has  risen  above  them  by  his  own  force,  confers  a 
dignity  upon  them  ;  and  the  rustic  boy,  who  is  to  be 
President  in  1900,  may  well  be  consoled  and  encour- 
aged in  his  labors  when  he  recalls  these  incidents  in  the 
(50) 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.          51 

history  of  one  whose  future  once  wore  no  brighter  aspect 
than  his  own  wears  now. 

The  emigrant,  at  the  head  of  the  slow  oxen  that  drag 
his  household  gods  toward  the  setting  sun — toward  some 
Illinois  yet  further  west — will  take  heart  and  hope  when 
he  remembers  that  Lincoln  made  no  prouder  entrance 
into  the  State  of  which  he  is  now  the  first  citizen. 

The  young  student,  climbing  unaided  up  the  steep 
ascent — he  who  has  begun  the  journey  after  the  best 
hours  of  the  morning  are  lost  forever — shall  not  bo 
without  encouragement  when  he  finds  the  footprints  of 
another  in  the  most  toilsome  windings  of  his  path. 

Lincoln's  future  success  or  unsuccess  can  affect  noth- 
ing in  the  past.  The  grandeur  of  his  triumph  over  all 
the  obstacles  of  fortune,  will  remain  the  same.  Office 
can  not  confer  honors  brighter  than  those  he  has  already 
achieved  ;  it  is  the  Presidency,  not  a  great  man,  that  is 
elevated,  if  such  be  chosen  chief  magistrate. 

We  have  seen  that,  in  1842,  he  declines  re-election  to 
the  State  Legislature,  after  eight  years'  service  in  that 
body.  He  has  already  been  on  the  Harrison  electoral 
ticket,  and  has  distinguished  himself  in  the  famous  can- 
vass of  1840. 

But  it  is  not  as  a  politician  alone,  that  Lincoln  is 
heard  of  at  this  time.  After  Stuart's  election  to  Con- 
gress has  dissolved  their  connection,  Lincoln  forms  a 
partnership  with  Judge  Logan,  one  of  the  first  in  his 
profession  at  Springfield,  and  continues  the  practice  of 
the  law,  with  rising  repute. 


52         LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

His  characteristics  as  an  advocate,  are  an  earnestness 
and  sincerity  of  manner,  and  a  directness,  conciseness, 
and  strength  of  style ;  he  appeals,  at  other  times,  to 
the  weapons  of  good-humored  ridicule  as  ably  as  to 
the  heavier  arms  of  forensic  combat.  He  is  strongest 
in  civil  cases,  but  in  a  criminal  cause  that  enlists  his 
sympathy  he  is  also  great.  It  is  then  that  the  advocate's 
convictions,  presented  to  the  jury  in  terse  and  forcible, 
yet  eloquent  language,  sometimes  outweigh  the  charge 
of  the  judge.  Juries  listen  to  him,  and  concur  in  his 
arguments;  for  his  known  truth  has  preceded  his  argu- 
ments, and  he  triumphs.  There  may  be  law  and  evi- 
dence against  him,  but  the  belief  that  Lincoln  is  right, 
nothing  can  shake  in  the  minds  of  those  who  know  the 
man. 

He  prepares  his  cases  with  infinite  care,  when  he  has 
nothing  but  technical  work  before  him.  The  smallest 
detail  of  the  affair  does  not  escape  him.  All  the  parts 
are  perfectly  fitted  together,  and  the  peculiar  powers  of 
his  keen,  analytic  mind  are  brought  into  full  play.  He 
has  not  the  quickness  which  characterizes  Douglas,  and 
which  is  so  useful  to  the  man  who  adventures  in  law 
or  politics.  But  he  is  sufficiently  alert,  and  recovers 
himself  in  time  to  achieve  success. 

Lincoln  does  not  grow  rich  at  the  law,  and  has  not 
grown  rich  to  this  day,  though  possessing  a  decent  com- 
petence, and  owing  no  man  anything.  Poor  men,  who 
have  the  misfortune  to  do  with  courts,  come  to  Lincoln, 
who  has  never  been  known  to  exact  an  exorbitant  fee, 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          63 

and  whose  demands  are  always  proportioned  to  their 
poverty.  There  is  record  of  a  case  which  he  gained  for 
a  young  mechanic,  after  carrying  it  through  three  courts, 
and  of  his  refusal  to  receive  more  than  a  comparative 
trifle  in  return. 

Meantime,  in  the  year  1842,  Lincoln  married  a  wo- 
man worthy  to  be  the  companion  of  his  progress  toward 
honor  and  distinction.  Miss  Mary  Todd,  who  became 
his  wife,  is  the  daughter  of  Robert  Todd,  of  Lexington, 
Kentucky,  a  man  well  known  in  that  State,  and  for- 
merly the  clerk  of  the  lower  House  of  Congress.  At  the 
time  of  her  marriage,  Miss  Todd  was  the  belle  of  Spring- 
field society — accomplished  and  intellectual,  and  possess- 
ing all  the  social  graces  native  in  the  women  of  Ken- 
tucky.* 

If,  at  this  point  of  his  career,  Lincoln  looked  back 
over  his  past  life  with  proud  satisfaction,  his  feeling  was 
one  in  which  every  reader,  who  has  traced  his  history, 
must  sympathize. 

It  was  hardly  more  than  a  half-score  of  years  since 
he  had  entered  Illinois,  driving  an  ox-wagon,  laden  with 
the  "  plunder  "  of  a  backwoods  emigrant.  He  was  ut- 
terly unknown,  and  without  friends  who  could  advance 
him  in  any  way.  He  was  uneducated,  and  almost  un- 
lettered. 

In  ten  yelrs  he  had  reversed  all  the  relations  of  his 


*  Three  living  sons  are  the  children  of  this  marriage  ;  th«  first  of  whom  was 
born  iu  1843,  the  second  in  1350,  and  the  third  iu  1863.  Another  son,  who  wag 
born  in  1846,  is  now  dead. 


54  LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

life.  No  man  had  now  more  friends  among  all  classes 
of  people.  No  man  among  his  neighbors  had  a  wider 
intelligence,  or  more  eager  and  comprehensive  mind. 
No  man  of  his  age  stood  better  in  his  profession,  or  in 
politics.  No  one  was  in  a  fairer  road  to  happiness  and 
success.  And  all  this  had  been  accomplished  through 
his  own  exertion,  and  the  favor  which  his  many  noble 
traits  awakened  in  those  around  him. 

He  might  well  exult  in  view  of  all  that  had  been,  and 
all  that  was. 

But,  however  this  may  have  been,  Lincoln  did  not 
pause  to  exult.  He  exulted  in  full  career;  for  already 
the  great  battle  of  1844  was  approaching,  and  he  was  to 
take  a  prominent  part  in  the  contest.  Many  of  the  peo- 
ple of  Illinois  have  distinct  recollection  of  the  brilliant 
debates  which  he  conducted  with  Calhoun  and  Thomas, 
and  these  are  loth  to  concede  that  they  have  ever  been 
surpassed.  The  debaters  met  in  all  the  principal  cities 
and  towns  of  that  State,  and  afterward  carried  the  war 
into  Indiana. 

It  may  bo  supposed  that  the  fortunes  of  the  war  varied, 
but  there  are  popular  stories  related  of  these  encounters 
that  give  rather  amusing  results  of  one  of  Lincoln's  fre- 
quent successes. 

The  contest  turned  upon  the  annexation  of  Texas,  to 
which  measure  Lincoln  was  opposed,  in  proportion  as 
lie  loved  and  honored  Henry  Clay.  It  has  been  said 
that  no  man  ever  had  such  friends  as  Clay  possessed. 
It  may  be  said  that  he  never  possessed  a  friend  more 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OP   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.         55 

ardent,  attached,  and  faithful  than  Abraham  Lincoln. 
Throughout  that  disastrous  campaign  of  1844,  Lincoln 
was  a  zealous  and  indefatigable  soldier  in  the  Whig 
cause.  His  name  was  on  the  electoral  ticket  of  Illinois, 
and  he  shared  the  defeat  of  his  gallant  leader — a  defeat 
which  precipitated  the  Mexican  war,  with  its  attendant 
evils,  and  the  long  train  of  dissensions,  discords,  and 
pro-slavery  aggressions  which  have  followed. 

In  the  lull  which  comes  after  a  Presidential  battle, 
Lincoln,  while  mingling  in  State  politics,  devoted  him- 
self more  particularly  to  professional  affairs,  though  he 
continued  an  enemy  to  the  Mexican  war,  and  his  election 
to  Congress  in  1846,  took  place  in  full  view  of  this  en- 
mity. It  is  worthy  of  note,  in  this  connection,  that  he 
was  the  only  Whig  elected  in  Illinois  at  that  time. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  period  over  which  Lincoln's  Congressional  career 
extends,  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  of  our  history. 

Mr.  Folk's  favorite  scheme  of  a  war  of  glory  and 
aggrandizement,  had  been  in  full  course  of  unsatisfactory 
experiment.  Our  little  army  in  Mexico  had  conquered  a 
peace  as  rapidly  as  possible.  The  battles  of  Palo  Alto, 
Reseca  de  la  Palma,  Monterey,  Buena  Vista,  Cerro  Gordo, 
and  the  rest,  had  been  fought  to  the  triumph  and  honor 
of  the  American  arms.  Everywhere,  the  people  had  re- 
garded these  successes  with  patriotic  pride.  They  had 
felt  a  yet  deeper  interest  in  them  because  the  volunteer 
system  had  taken  the  war  out  of  the  hands  of  mercena- 
ries, and  made  it,  in  some  sort,  the  crusade  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  civilization  and  vigor  against  the  semi-barbarism 
and  effeteness  of  the  Mexican  and  Spanish  races. 

Yet,  notwithstanding  the  popular  character  thus  given 
to  the  army,  the  war  itself  had  not  increased  in  popu- 
larity. People,  in  their  sober  second  thought,  rejected 
the  specious  creed,  "  Our  country,  right  or  wrong,"  and 
many  looked  forward  earnestly  and  anxiously  to  a  con- 
clusion of  hostilities. 

The  elections  of  Congressmen  had  taken  place,  and  in 
(56) 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  57 

the  Thirtieth  Congress,  which  assembled  on  the  6th  of 
December,  1847,  the  people,  by  a  majority  of  seven 
Whigs  in  the  House,  pronounced  against  the  war, 
though  hardly  more  than  a  year  had  elapsed  since  their 
Eepresentatives,  by  a  vote  of  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
two  to  fourteen,  had  declared  war  to  exist  through  the 
act  of  Mexico. 

In  those  days,  great  men  shaped  the  destinies  of  the 
nation.  In  the  Senate  sat  Clay,  Calhoun,  Benton,  Web- 
ster, Corwin.  In  the  House  were  Palfrey,  Winthrop, 
Wilmot,  Giddings,  Adams. 

The  new  member  from  Illinois,  who  had  distinguished 
himself  in  1844  as  the  friend  of  Clay  and  the  enemy 
of  Texan  annexation,  took  his  seat  among  these  great 
men  as  a  representative  of  the  purest  Whig  principles ; 
he  was  opposed  to  the  war,  as  Corwin  was;  he  was  anti- 
slavery,  as  Clay  was;  he  favored  internal  improvements, 
as  all  the  great  Whigs  did. 

And  as  Abraham  Lincoln  never  sat  astride  of  any 
fence,  unless  in  his  rail-splitting  days  ;  as  water  was 
never  carried  on  both  of  his  square  shoulders;  as  his 
prayers  to  Heaven  have  never  been  made  with  reference 
to  a  compromise  with  other  powers;  so,  throughout  his 
Congressional  career,  you  find  him  the  bold  advocate  of 
the  principles  which  he  believed  to  be  right.  He  never 
dodged  a  vote.  He  never  minced  matters  with  his  oppo- 
nents. He  had  not  been  fifteen  days  in  the  House  when 
he  made  known  what  manner  of  man  he  was. 

On  the  22d  of  December  he  offered  a  series  of  reso- 


58  LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

lutions,*  making  the  most  damaging  inquiries  of  the 
President,  as  to  the  verity  of  certain  statements  in  his 
messages  of  May  and  December.  Mr.  Polk  had  repre- 
sented that  the  Mexicans  were  the  first  aggressors  in  the 


*Tho  following  are  the  resolutions,  which  It  is  judged  best  to  print  here  ia 
full: 

"  Whereat,  the  President  of  the  United  States,  in  his  Message  of  May  11, 
1816,  has  declared  that  '  the  Mexican  government  refused  to  receive  him,  [the 
envoy  of  the  United  States,]  or  listen  to  his  propositions,  but,  after  a  long-con- 
tinued series  of  menaces,  have  at  last  invaded  our  territory,  ami  shed  the  blood  of 
our  fellow-citizens  on  our  own  toil.' 

"And  again,  in  his  Message  of  December  8, 1840,  that  'we  had  ample  cause  of 
war  against  Mexico  long  before  the  breaking  out  of  hostilities  ;  but  even  then 
we  forbore  to  take  redress  into  our  own  hands,  until  Mexico  basely  became  the 
aggressor,  by  invading  our  toil  in  hostile  array,  and  shedding  the  blood  of  our 
citizens.' 

"And  yet  again,  in  bis  Message  of  December  7,  1847,  'The  Mexican  govern- 
ment refused  even  to  hear  the  terms  of  adjustment  which  he  (our  minister  of 
peace)  was  authorized  to  propose,  and  finally,  under  wholly  unjustifiable  pre- 
texts, involved  the  two  countries  in  war,  by  invading  the  territory  of  the  State 
of  Texas,  striking  the  first  blow,  and  shedding  the  blood  of  our  citizens  on  our 
own  toil.1 

"And  whereas  this  House  is  desirous  to  obtain  a  full  knowledge  of  all  tin 
facts  which  go  to  establish  whether  the  particular  spot  on  which  the  blood  of 
our  citizens  was  so  shed,  was,  or  was  not,  at  that  time,  our  own  soil.  Therefore, 

"Resolved,  by  the  House  of  Representatices,  That  the  President  of  the  United 
States  be  respectfully  requested  to  inform  this  House — 

"  1st.  Whether  the  spot  on  which  the  blood  of  our  citizens  was  shed,  as  in  his 
memorial  declared,  was,  or  was  not  within  the  territory  of  Spain,  at  least,  after 
the  treaty  of  1819,  until  the  Mexican  revolution. 

"2d.  Whether  that  spot  is,  or  is  not  within  the  territory  which  was  wrested 
from  Spain  by  the  revolutionary  government  of  Mexico. 

"3d.  Whether  that  spot  is,  or  is  not  within  a  settlement  of  people,  which  set- 
tlement has  existed  ever  since  long  before  the  Texas  Revolution,  and  until  its 
inhabitants  fled  before  the  approach  of  the  United  States  army. 

"  4th.  Whether  that  settlement  is,  or  is  not  isolated  from  any  nnd  all  other 
settlements  of  the  Gulf  and  the  Rio  Grande  on  the  south  and  west,  and  of  wide 
uninhabited  regions  on  the  north  and  east. 

"5th.  Whether  the  people  of  that  settlement,  or  a  majority  of  them,  have 
ever  submitted  themselves  to  the  government  or  laws  of  Texas,  or  of  the  United 
States,  of  consent  or  of  compulsion,  either  of  accepting  office  or  voting  at  elec- 
tions, or  paying  taxes,  or  serving  on  juries,  or  having  process  served  on  them 
or  in  any  other  way. 

"  6th.  Whether  the  people  of  that  settlement  did  or  did  not  flee  at  the  ap- 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  59 

existing  hostilities,  by  an  invasion  of  American  soil,  and 
an  effusion  of  American  blood,  after  rejecting  the  friend- 
ly overtures  made  by  this  country. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  resolutions  demanded  to  know  whether 
the  spot  on  which  American  blood  had  been  shed,  was 
not  Mexican,  or  at  least,  disputed  territory;  whether  the 
Mexicans  who  shed  this  blood  had  not  been  driven  from 
their  homes  by  the  approach  of  our  arms;  whether  the 
Americans  killed  were  not  armed  soldiers  sent  into 
Mexican  territory,  by  order  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States. 

Parliamentary  strategy  defeated  the  proposed  inquiry, 
the  resolutions  going  over  under  the  rules. 

On  the  12th  of  January,  Mr.  Lincoln  made  a  speech* 
on  the  reference  of  different  parts  of  the  President's 
message.  In  this  speech  he  justified  a  previous  vote  of 
sentiment,  declaring  that  the  war  had  been  "unnecessa- 
rily and  unconstitutionally  commenced  by  the  President 
of  the  United  States."  That  vote  had  been  pressed 
upon  the  opposition  of  the  House,  by  the  President's 


preaching  of  the  United  States  army,  leaving  unprotected  their  homes  and  their 
growing  crops  before  the  blood  was  shed,  as  in  the  message  stated;  and  whether 
the  first  blood  so  shod  was,  or  was  not  shed  within  the  inclosuro  of  one  of  tho 
people  who  had  thus  fled  from  it. 

"7th.  Whether  our  citizens  whose  blood  was  shed,  as  in  his  message  declared, 
•were,  or  wore  not,  »t  that  time,  armed  officers  and  soldiers  sent  into  that  settle- 
ment by  the  military  order  of  the  President,  through  tho  Secretary  of  War. 

"8th.  Whether  the  military  force  of  the  United  States  was,  or  was  not  so  sent 
Into  that  settlement  after  General  Taylor  had  more  than  once  intimated  to  the 
War  Department  that,  in  his  opinion,  no  such  movement  was  necessary  to  the 
defense  or  protection  of  Texas." — Concessional  Globe,  vol.  xviii,  1st  session,  30tt 
Congress,  page  04. 

*  Globe  Appendix,  vol,  xix,  page  93. 


60         LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

friends,  in  order  to  force  an  expression  of  opinion  which 
should  seem  unjust  to  that  functionary.  Discussing 
this  point,  Mr.  Lincoln  coolly  argued  to  conclusions 
the  most  injurious  to  the  administration;  showing  that 
even  though  the  President  had  attempted  to  construe  a 
vote  of  supplies  for  the  army  into  a  vote  applauding  his 
official  course,  the  opposition  had  remained  silent,  until 
Mr.  Folk's  friends  forced  this  matter  upon  them.  Mr. 
Lincoln  then  took  up  the  arguments  of  the  President's 
message,  one  by  one,  and  exposed  their  fallacy  ;  and  fol- 
lowing the  line  of  inquiry  marked  out  by  his  resolutions 
of  December,  proved  that  the  first  American  blood  shed 
by  Mexicans,  was  in  retaliation  for  injuries  received  from 
us,  and  that  hostilities  had  commenced  on  Mexican  soil. 
The  speech  was  characterized  by  all  the  excellences  of 
Lincoln's  later  style — boldness,  trenchant  logic,  and  dry 
humor.  f  i  J 

He  next  appears  in  the  debates,*  as  briefly  advocating 
a  measure  to  give  bounty  lands  to  the  surviving  volun- 
teer soldiers  of  the  war  of  1812,  and  arguing  the  pro- 
priety of  permitting  all  soldiers  holding  land  warrants, 
to  locate  their  lands  in  different  parcels,  instead  of  re- 
quiring the  location  to  be  made  in  one  body. 

As  Lincoln  is  a  man  who  never  talks  unless  he  has 
something  particular  to  say,  (rare  and  inestimable  vir- 
tue !)  a  period  of  some  three  months  elapsed  before  he 
made  another  speech  in  Congress.  On  the  20th  of  June, 

dole,  vol.  xviii,  page  550. 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  61 

1848,  the  Civil  and  Diplomatic  Appropriation  bill  being 
under  consideration,  he  addressed  to  the  House  and 
the  country,  a  clear  and  solid  argument  in  favor  of  the 
improvement  of  rivers  and  harbors.*  As  a  Western 
man,  and  as  a  man  whom  his  own  boating  experiences 
had  furnished  with  actual  knowledge  of  the  perils  of 
snags  and  sawyers,  he  had  always  been  in  favor  of  a 
measure  which  commended  itself  at  once  to  the  heart 
and  the  pocket  of  the  West.  As  the  representative  of  a 
State  with  many  hundred  miles  of  Mississippi  river,  and 
vast  river  interests,  he  argued  to  show  that  an  enlight- 
ened system  of  internal  improvements,  must  be  of  na- 
tional as  well  as  local  benefit.f  The  prevailing  Demo- 
cratic errors  on  this  subject,  as  Mr.  Lincoln  succinctly 
stated  them,  were"  as  follows  : 

"  That  internal  improvements  ought  not  to  be  made 
by  the  General  Government: 

"  1.  Because  they  would  overwhelm  the  Treasury. 

"  2.  Because,  while  their  burdens  would  be  general, 
their  benefits  would  be  local  and  partial,  involving  an 
obnoxious  inequality  ;  and, 

"3.  Because  they  would  be  unconstitutional. 

"4.  Because  the  States  may  do  enough  by  the  levy 
and  collection  of  tonnage  duties;  or,  if  not, 

"  5.  That  the  Constitution  may  be  amended. 


Globe  Appendix,  vol.  xix,  page  709. 

|  This  speech  will  be  found  printed  at  length  in  the  appendix  to  the  present 
biography. 


62          LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

'The  sum,"  said  Lincoln,  "of  these  positions  is,  Do 
nothing  at  all,  lest  you  do  something  wrong." 

He  then  proceeded  to  assail  each  of  the  positions, 
demolishing  them  one  after  another.  That  admirable 
simplicity  of  diction  which  dashes  straight  at  the  heart 
of  a  subject,  and  that  singular  good  sense  which  teaches 
a  man  to  stop  when  he  is  done,  are  no  less  the  charac- 
teristics of  this  effort  than  of  all  the  other  speeches  of 
Mr.  Lincoln. 

Of  a  different  manner,  but  illustrating  a  phase  of  his 
mind  equally  marked,  is  the  speech  he  made  in  the 
House  on  the  27th  of  July,*  when  he  discussed  the 
political  questions  of  the  day  with  reference  to  the  Pres- 
idential contest  between  General  Taylor  and  Mr.  Cass. 
It  abounds  in  broad  ridicule  and  broad  drollery — the 
most  effective  and  the  most  good-natured.  Severe  and 
sarcastic  enough,  when  treating  a  false  principle,  it 
seems  never  to  have  been  one  of  Lincoln's  traits  to 
indulge  in  bitter  personalities.  His  only  enemies,  there- 
fore, are  those  who  hate  his  principles. 

On  the  21st  of  December,  1848,  Mr.  Gott,  of  New- 
York,  offered  a  resolution  in  the  House,  instructing 
the  Committee  on  the  District  of  Columbia  to  report  a 
bill  for  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade  in  that  District. 
There  were  men  in  Congress  then  who  had  not  forgot- 
ten the  traditions  of  the  Republican  fathers,  and  who 
were  indignant  that  slaves  should  be  bought  and  sold 

*  Globe  Appendix,  vol.  six,  page  lOil. 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.         63 

in  the  shadow  of  the  capital — that  the  slave-trader  should 
make  the  political  metropolis  of  the  Republic  a  depot 
on  the  line  of  his  abominable  traffic. 

As  soon  as  the  resolution  of  Mr.  Gottwas  read,  a  mo- 
tion was  made  to  lay  it  on  the  table,  which  was  lost  by 
a  vote  of  eighty-one  to  eighty-five.  A  hot  struggle  en- 
sued;  but  the  resolution  was  adopted.  An  immediate 
attempt  to  reconsider  proved  ineffectual.  The  action 
upon  reconsideration  was  postponed  from  day  to  day, 
until  the  10th  of  January  following,  when  Mr.  Lincoln 
proposed  that  the  committee  should  be  instructed  to  re- 
port a  bill  forbidding  the  sale,  beyond  the  District  of 
Columbia,  of  any  slave  born  within  its  limits,  or  the 
removal  of  slaves  from  the  District,  except  such  servants 
as  were  in  attendance  upon  their  masters  temporarily 
residing  at  Washington;  establishing  an  apprenticeship 
of  twenty-one  years  for  all  slaves  born  within  the  District 
subsequent  to  the  year  1850;  providing  for  their  emanci- 
pation at  the  expiration  of  the  apprenticeship;  authoriz- 
ing the  United  States  to  buy  and  emancipate  all  slaves 
within  the  District,  whose  owners  should  desire  to  set 
them  free  in  that  manner;  finally  submitting  the  bill 
to  a  vote  of  the  citizens  of  the  District  for  approval. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  efforts  to  abolish  the  slave- 
trade  in  the  District  of  Columbia  have  resulted  in  noth- 
ing.* The  wise,  humane,  and  temperate  measure  of  Mr. 
Lincoln  shared  the  fate  of  all  the  rest. 


*Mr.  Lincoln's  proposition  had  received  the  approval  of  Mayor  Seaton,  of 
Washington,  who  informed   him  that  it  would  meet  the  approbation  of   the 


64          LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

Another  great  measure  of  the  Congress  in  which  Mr. 
Lincoln  figured,  was  the  Wilmot  Proviso — now  a  favor- 
ite Kepublican  measure — and  so  pervading,  with  its  dis- 
tinctive principle  (opposition  to  slavery  extension)  the 
whole  Republican  soul,  that,  whether  in  or  out  of  plat- 
forms, it  remains  the  life  and  strength  of  the  party.  To 
this  measure  Mr.  Lincoln  was  fully  committed.  Indeed, 
it  is  a  peculiarity  of  this  man,  that  he  has  always  acted 
decidedly  one  way  or  the  other.  He  thought  the  Mex- 
ican war  wrong.  He  opposed  it  with  his  whole  heart 
and  strength.  He  thought  the  Wilmot  Proviso  right, 
and  he  says  he  "  had  the  pleasure  of  voting  for  it,  in  one 
way  or  another,  about  forty  times." 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  one  of  those  who  advocated  the 
nomination  of  General  Taylor,  in  the  National  Whig 
Convention  of  1848.  Returning  to  Illinois  after  the 
adjournment  of  Congress,  he  took  the  stump  for  his 
favorite  candidate,  and  was  active  throughout  that  fa- 
mous canvass.  In  1849,  he  retired  from  Congress,  firmly 
declining  re-nomination,  and  resumed  the  practice  of 
his  profession. 

The  position  which  he  maintained  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  was  eminently  respectable.  His  name 
appears  oftener  in  the  ayes  and  noes,  than  in  the  de- 
bates; he  spoke  therefore  with  the  more  force  and  effect 
when  he  felt  called  upon  to  express  his  opinion. 


leading  citizens.  Afterward,  Southern  Congressmen  -visited  the  Mayor  and 
persuaded  him  to  withdraw  the  moral  support  given  to  the  measure.  When 
this  bad  been  done,  the  chief  hope  of  success  was  destroyed,  and  the  bill,  of 
which  Mr.  Lincoln  gave  notice,  was  never  introduced. 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  65 

The  impression  that  his  Congressional  speeches  give 
you,  is  the  same  left  by  all  others  that  he  has  made. 
You  feel  that  he  has  not  argued  to  gain  a  point,  but  to 
show  the  truth ;  that  it  is  not  Lincoln  he  wishes  to  sus- 
tain, but  Lincoln's  principles. 
6 


CHAPTER  VII. 

PEACE  to  the  old  Whig  party,  which  is  dead !  When 
a  man  has  ceased  to  live,  we  are  cheaply  magnanimous 
in  the  exaltation  of  his  virtues,  and  we  repair  whatever 
wrong  we  did  him  when  alive  by  remorselessly  abusing 
every  one  who  hints  that  he  may  have  been  an  imper- 
ceptible trifle  lower  than  the  angels. 

It  is  with  such  post-mortem  greatness  of  soul  that 
the  leaders  of  the  Democracy  have  cherished  the  memory 
of  the  Whig  party,  and  gone  about  the  stump,  clad  in 
moral  sackcloth  and  craped  hats. 

If  you  will  believe  these  stricken  mourners,  virtue 
went  out  with  that  lamented  organization ;  and  there  is 
but  one  true  man  unhanged  in  America,  and  he  is  a 
stoutish  giant,  somewhat  under  the  middle  size. 

In  speaking,  therefore,  of  the  Whig  party,  you  have 
first  to  avoid  offense  to  the  gentlemen  who  reviled  its 
great  men  in  their  lifetime,  and  who  have  a  fondness 
for  throwing  the  honored  dust  of  the  past  into  the  eyes 
of  the  present.  Then,  respect  is  due  to  the  feelings  of 
those  Republicans  who  abandoned  the  Whig  party  only 
after  the  last  consolations  of  religion  had  been  admin- 
istered, and  who  still  remember  it  with  sincere  regret. 

The  prejudices  of  another  class  of  our  friends  must 
(66) 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.         67 

be  treated  with  decent  regard.  Very  many  old  Demo- 
crats in  the  Republican  ranks  are  earnestly  persuaded 
that  in  former  times  they  were  right  in  their  opposition 
to  the  Whigs. 

Yet  one  more  variety  of  opinion  must  be  consulted — 
the  opinion  that  the  Whig  party  had  survived  its  useful- 
ness, and  that  all  which  was  good  in  it  has  now  entered 
upon  a  higher  and  purer  state  of  existence  in  the  Re- 
publican organization. 

Doubtless  it  would  be  better  not  to  mention  the  Whig 
party  at  all.  Unfortunately  for  the  ends  of  strict  pru- 
dence, the  story  of  Abraham  Lincoln's  life  involves 
allusion  to  it,  since  he  was  once  a  Whig,  and  became  a 
Republican,  and  not  a  Democrat.  But  as  every  Repub- 
lican is  a  code  of  by-laws  unto  himself — subject  only  to 
the  Chicago  platform — perhaps  we  may  venture  to  rever- 
ently speak  of  the  shade  which  still,  it  is  said,  revisits 
the  glimpses  of  Boston  ;  and  to  recount  the  events  which 
preceded  its  becoming  a  shade. 

So  early  as  1848  the  dismemberment  of  the  Whig 
party  commenced.  It  had  been  distinguished  by  many 
of  the  characteristics  of  the  Republican  party,  among 
which  is  the  reserved  right  of  each  member  of  the  or- 
ganization to  think  and  act  for  himself,  on  his  own 
responsibility,  as  already  intimated.  Whenever  its  lead- 
ers deflected  from  the  straight  line  of  principle,  their 
followers  called  them  to  account;  and  a  persistence  in 
the  advocacy  of  measures  repugnant  to  the  individual 
sense  of  right,  caused  disaffection. 


68         LIFE   AND    SPEECHES    OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

Many  sincere  and  earnest  men,  who  supported  Henry 
Clay  with  ardor,  ceased  to  be  "Whigs  when  General  Tay- 
lor was  nominated,  because  they  conceived  that  his  nom- 
ination was  a  departure  from  the  Clay  Whig  principles 
of  opposition  to  the  Mexican  war  and  the  acquisition  of 
slave  territory. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  pronounce  upon  the  wisdom 
or  justice  of  their  course.  Others,  as  sincere  and  earnest 
as  they,  supported  General  Taylor,  and  continued  to  act 
with  the  Whig  party  throughout  the  Fillmore  adminis- 
tration. 

The  assimilation  of  the  two  great  parties  on  the  slav- 
ery question  in  1852,  widened  the  distance  between  the 
Whigs  and  the  Free  Soilers,  and  the  former  were,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  latter,  demoralized  before  the  election  in 
which  they  suffered  so  total  an  overthrow,  though  they 
continued  steadfast  in  their  devotion  to  the  Whig  name 
until  1854,  when  the  first  organization  of  the  Republi- 
cans took  place,  under  the  name  of  the  Anti-Nebraska 
party. 

The  Whig  Free  Soilers  were  eager  and  glad  to  frater- 
nize with  their  old  friends;  and  all  greeted  with  enthu- 
siasm the  vast  accessions  which  the  new  party  received 
from  the  men  who  had  given  spiritual  vitality  to  the 
Democracy. 

Those  members  of  both  the  old  parties,  who  wero 
particularly  sensible  to  the  attractions  of  office,  those 
whom  no  pro-slavery  aggression  could  render  supe- 
rior to  the  luxury  of  a  feeble  or  selfish  acquiescence, 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.          69 

also  coalesce-d,  and  now  constitute,  with,  a  few  sincere 
political  reminiscences,  the  Democracy  of  the  North. 

Up  to  the  time  of  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compro- 
mise, Abraham  Lincoln  remained  a  Whig,  both  from 
conviction  and  affection. 

In  1848,  he  had  made  speeches  in  favor  of  the  election 
of  General  Taylor,  in  Maryland,  in  Massachusetts,  and 
in  Illinois.  In  his  own  Congressional  district,  where 
his  word  has  always  been  platform  enough,  the  success 
of  his  canvass  was  declared  by  a  majority  of  fifteen  hun- 
dred for  Taylor. 

After  his  retirement  from  Congress,  he  devoted  him- 
self, with  greater  earnestness  than  ever  before,  to  the 
duties  of  his  profession,  and  extended  his  business  and 
repute.  He  did  not  reappear  in  the  political  arena  until 
1852,  when  his  name  was  placed  on  the  Scott  electoral 
ticket. 

In  the  canvass  of  that  year,  so  disastrous  to  the  Whig 
party  throughout  the  country,  Lincoln  appeared  several 
times  before  the  people  of  his  State  as  the  advocate  of 
Scott's  claims  for  the  Presidency.  But  the  prospect  was 
everywhere  so  disheartening,  and  in  Illinois  the  cause 
was  so  utterly  desperate,  that  the  energies  of  the  Whigs 
were  paralyzed,  and  Lincoln  did  less  in  this  Presidential 
struggle  than  any  in  which  he  had  ever  engaged. 

During  that  lethargy  which  preceded  the  dissolution 
of  his  party,  he  had  almost  relinquished  political  aspir- 
ations. Successful  in  his  profession,  happy  in  his  home, 
secure  in.  the  affection  of  his  neighbors,  with  books,  com- 


70          LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

petence,  and  leisure — ambition  could  not  tempt  him.  It 
required  the  more  thrilling  voice  of  danger  to  freedom, 
to  call  the  veteran  of  so  many  good  fights  into  the  field. 
The  call  was  made. 

It  would  be  useless  to  recount  here  the  history  of  the 
Missouri  Compromise,  and  the  circumstances  attending 
the  violation  of  that  compact,  though  that  history  is 
properly  a  part  of  the  biography  of  every  public  man  in 
the  country.  Throughout  the  fierce  contest  which  pre- 
ceded the  repeal  of  the  Compromise,  and  the  storm  of 
indignation  which  followed  that  repeal,  the  whole  story 
was  brought  vividly  before  the  people,  and  can  not  now 
have  faded  from  their  recollection.  Those  to  whom  it 
is  yet  strange,  will  find  it  briefly  and  faithfully  related 
in  the  speech  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  made  in  reply  to 
Douglas,  at  Peoria,  in  October,  1854.* 


*  Printed  in  full  in  this  volume.  Douglas  and  Lincoln  had  previously  met  at 
Springfield,  where  the  latter  played  David  to  the  abbreviated  Goliah  of  the  for- 
mer. The  following  spirited  sketch  of  the  scene  is  by  the  editor  of  the  Chicago 
Pre*»  a»d  Tribune,  who  was  present : 

"  The  affair  came  off  on  the  fourth  day  of  October,  1851.  The  State  Fair 
had  been  in  progress  two  days,  and  the  capital  was  full  of  all  manner  of  men. 
The  Nebraska  bill  had  been  passed  on  the  previous  twenty-second  of  May.  Mr. 
Douglas  had  returned  to  Illinois  to  meet  an  outraged  constituency.  He  had 
made  a  fragmentary  speech  in  Chicago,  the  people  filling  up  each  hiatus  in  a 
peculiar  and  good  humored  way.  He  called  the  people  a  mob — they  called  him 
a  rowdy.  The 'mob 'had  the  best  of  it,  both  then  and  at  the  election  which 
succeeded.  The  notoriety  of  all  these  events  had  stirred  up  the  politics  of  the 
State  from  bottom  to  top.  Hundreds  cf  politicians  had  met  at  Springfield,  ex- 
pecting a  tournament  of  an  unusual  character — Douglas,  Breose,  Koerner,  Lin- 
coln, Trunibtill,  Matteson,  Yates,  Codding,  John  Calhunn,  (of  the  order  of  the 
candle-box,)  John  M.  Palmer,  the  whole  house  of  the  McConnells,  Singleton, 
(known  to  fame  in  the  Mormon  war,)  Thomas  L.  Harris,  and  a  host  of  others. 
Several  speeches  were  made  before,  aud  several  after,  the  passage  between  Lin- 
coln and  Douglas,  but  that  was  justly  held  to  be  Hie  event  of  the  season. 

"We  do  not  remember  whether  a  challenge   to  debate  passed  between  the 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          71 

The  people  were  glad  to  hear  the  voice  of  their 
favorite  once  more,  and  Lincoln's  canvass  of  Illinois  was 
most  triumphant.  The  legislative  elections  were  held, 
and  those  who  denounced  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise,  were  found  to  be  in  the  majority. 


friends  of  the  speakers  or  not,  but  there  was  a  perfectly  amicable  understanding 
between  Lincoln  and  Douglas,  that  the  former  should  speak  two  or  three  hours, 
and  the  latter  reply  in  just  as  little  or  as  much  time  as  he  chose.  Mr.  Lincoln 
took  the  stand  at  two  o'clock— a  large  crowd  in  attendance,  and  Mr.  Douglas 
seated  on  a  small  platform  in  front  of  the  desk.  The  first  half  hour  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's  speech  was  taken  up  with  compliments  to  his  distinguished  friend 
Judge  Douglas,  and  dry  allusions  to  the  political  events  of  the  past  few  years. 
His  distinguished  friend,  Judge  Douglas,  hud  taken  his  seat,  as  solemn  as  the 
Cock- Lane  ghost,  evidently  with  the  design  of  not  moving  a  muscle  till  it  came 
his  turn  to  speak.  The  laughter  provoked  by  Lincoln's  exordium,  however,  soon 
began  to  make  him  uneasy  ;  and  when  Mr.  L.  arrived  at  his  (Douglas's)  speech, 
pronouncing  the  Missouri  Compromise  '  a  sacred  thing,  which  no  ruthless  hand 
would  ever  be  reckless  enough  to  disturb,'  he  opened  his  lips  far  enough  to 
remark,  'A  first-rate  speech  !'  This  was  the  beginning  of  an  amusing  colloquy. 

" 'Yes,' continued  Mr.  Lincoln,  'so  affectionate  was  my  friend's  regard  for 
this  Compromise  line,  that  when  Texas  was  admitted  into  the  Union,  and  it  was 
found  that  a  strip  extended  north  of  36°  3(X,  he  actually  introduced  a  bill  extend- 
ing the  line  apd  prohibiting  slavery  in  the  northern  edge  of  the  new  State.' 

"  'And  you  voted  against  the  bill,'  said  Douglas. 

"  'Precisely  so,'  replied  Lincoln  ;  '  I  was  in  favor  of  running  the  line  a  great 
deal  deal  further  south.' 

"'About  this  time,' the  speaker  continued,  '  my  distinguished  friend  intro- 
duced me  to  a  particular  friend  of  his,  one  David  Wilmot,  of  Pennsylvania.' 
[Laughter.] 

"  '  I  thought,'  said  Douglas,  'you  would  find  him  congenial  company.' 

"  '  So  I  did,'  replied  Lincoln.  'I  had  the  pleasure  of  voting  for  his  proviso, 
in  one  way  and  another,  about  forty  times.  It  was  a  Democratic  measure  then, 
I  believe.  At  any  rate,  General  Cass  scolded  honest  John  Davis,  of  Massachu- 
setts, soundly,  for  talking  away  the  last  hours  of  the  session,  so  that  he  (Cass) 
could  n't  crowd  it  through.  A  fn-opot  of  General  Cass:  if  I  am  not  greatly  mis- 
taken, he  has  a  prior  claim  to  my  distinguished  friend,  to  the  authorship  of 
Popular  Sovereignty.  The  old  general  has  an  infirmity  for  writing  letters. 
Shortly  after  the  scolding  he  gave  John  Davis,  he  wrote  his  Nicholson  letter' — 

"  Douglas  (solemnly) — '  God  Almighty  placed  man  on  the  earth,  and  told  him 
to  choose  between  good  and  evil.  That  was  the  origin  of  the  Nebraska  bill !' 

"Lincoln — 'Well,  the  priority  of  invention  being  settled,  let  ua  award  all 
credit  to  Judge  Douglas  for  being  the  first  to  discover  it." 

"  It  would  be  impossible,  in,  these  limits,  to  give  an  idea  of  the  strength  «f 


72  LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

The  election  of  a  United  States  Senator  took  place  the 
following  winter,  and  General  Shields  was  superseded. 
This  gentleman,  who,  listening  to  the  seductive  persua- 
sions of  his  voiceful  colleague,  was  said  to  have  voted  for 
the  repeal  of  the  Compromise  against  his  own  convictions, 
•was  a  candidate  for  re-election.  On  the  part  of  the  op- 
position majority  there  were  two  candidates,  Lincoln  and 
Trumbull.  The  great  body  of  the  opposition  voted 
steadily  for  the  former  on  several  ballots ;  but  some 
Democrats  who  had  been  elected  on  the  anti-Nebraska 
issue,  continued  to  cast  their  votes  for  Trumbull. 

Lincoln  feared  that  this  dissension  might  result  in  the 
election  of  a  less  positive  man  than  Trumbull,  and  with 


Mr.  Lincoln's  argument.  We  deemed  it  by  far  the  ablest  effort  of  the  campaign, 
from  whatever  source.  The  occasion  was  a  great  one,  and  the  speaker  was  every 
way  equal  to  it.  Tbo  effect  produced  on  the  listeners  was  magnetic.  No  one 
who  was  present  will  ever  forget  the  power  and  vehemence  of  the  following 
passage : 

"  My  distinguished  friend  says  it  is  an  insult  to  the  emigrants  to  Kansas  and 
Nebraska  to  suppose  they  are  not  able  to  govern  themselves.  We  must  not  slur 
over  an  argument  of  this  kind  because  it  happens  to  tickle  the  ear.  It  must  be 
met  and  answered.  I  admit  that  the  emigrant  to  Kansas  and  Nebraska  is  com- 
petent to  govern  himtelf,  but,'  the  speaker  rising  to  his  full  bight,  'I  deny  his  right 
togovernany  other  person  WITHOUT  THAT  PERSON'S  CONSENT.'  The  applause  which 
followed  this  triumphant  refutation  of  a  cunning  falsehood,  was  but  an  earnest 
of  the  victory  at  the  polls  which  followed  just  one  month  from  that  day. 

"When  Mr.  Lincoln  had  concluded,  Mr.  Douglas  strode  hastily  to  the  stand. 
As  usual,  he  employed  ten  minutes  in  telling  how  grossly  he  bad  been  abused. 
Recollecting  himself,  he  added,  'though  in  a  perfectly  courteous  manner' — 
abused  in  a  perfectly  courteous  manner  !  Hethcu  devoted  half  an  hour  to  show- 
ing that  it  was  indispensably  necessary  to  California  emigrants,  Santa  Fd  traders 
and  others,  to  have  organic  acts  provided  for  the  Territories  of  Kansas  and 
Nebraska — that  being  precisely  the  point  which  nobody  disputed.  Having 
established  this  premise  to  his  satisfaction,  Mr.  Douglas  launched  forth  into  an 
argument  wholly  apart  from  the  positions  taken  by  Mr.  Lincoln.  He  had  about 
half  finished  at  six  o'clock,  when  an  adjournment  to  tea  was  effected.  The 
speaker  insisted  strenuously  upon  his  right  to  resume  in  the  evening,  but  we 
believe  the  second  part  of  that  speech  has  uot  been  delivered  to  this  day. 


his  usual  unselfishness,  appealed  to  his  friends  to  vote 
for  Trumbull,  adjuring  them  by  their  friendship  to  him 
to  make  this  concession  of  individual  preference.  His 
appeal  was  not  in  vain,  and  Trumbull  was  elected 
Senator. 

This,  however,  was  not  the  first  sacrifice  which  he  made 
to  conciliation  and  union.  The  anti-Nebraska  party  of 
the  same  year  offered  him  the  nomination  for  Governor; 
but  in  the- existing  state  of  organizations,  he  declined 
for  the  sake  of  the  cause  which  all  had  espoused.  It 
occurs  in  politics  that  a  force  which  suddenly  rallies 
about  a  principle,  may  be  disheartened  by  the  choice  of 
a  leader  whom  recent  animosities  have  rendered  obnox- 
ious. Lincoln,  as  a  Whig,  had  been  one  of  the  most 
decided  and  powerful  opponents  of  Democracy  in  Illi- 
nois. The  period  since  his  opposition  to  many  Demo- 
cratic members  of  the  anti-Nebraska  party  had  ceased 
was  very  brief,  and  old  feelings  of  antagonism  had  not 
died  away.  He  perceived  that  the  advancement  of  him- 
self might  impede  the  advancement  of  his  principles. 
Doubtless,  he  could  be  elected  Governor  of  Illinois,  but 
the  victory  which  bore  him  into  office  might  be  less 
brilliant  and  useful  than  that  which  could  be  achieved 
under  another.  He  therefore  withdrew  his  name, 
and  threw  his  influence  in  favor  of  Governor  Bissell, 
who  had  been  a  Democrat,  and  who  was  triumphantly 
elected. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  Republican  party  had, 
as  yet,  no  definite  existence  in  Illinois.     The  anti-Ne- 
7 


74          LITE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

braska  party  was  the  temporary  name  of  the  "Whigs, 
Democrats,  and  Free  Soilers,  who  opposed  the  repeal  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise.  It  is  true  that  a  Mass  State 
Convention,  with  a  view  to  forming  a  permanent  organi- 
zation, had  been  held  at  Springfield,  in  October ;  but 
many  anti-Nebraska  men,  who  still  adhered  to  old  names, 
had  not  taken  part  in  it.  The  following  resolutions 
were  adopted  at  this  Convention  : 

"1.  Resolved,  That  we  believe  this  truth  to  be  self-evident,  that 
when  parties  become  subversive  of  the  ends  for  which  they  are 
established,  or  incapable  of  restoring  the  Government  to  the  true 
principles  of  the  Constitution,  it  is  the  right  and  duty  of  the  peo- 
ple to  dissolve  the  political  bands  by  which  they  may  have  been 
connected  therewith,  and  to  organize  new  parties  upon  such  prin- 
ciples and  with  such  views  as  the  circumstances  and  exigencies 
of  the  nation  may  demand. 

"2.  Rf  solved,  That  the  times  imperatively  demand  the  reorgan- 
ization of  parties,  and,  repudiating  all  previous  party  attach- 
ments, names,  and  predilections,  we  unite  ourselves  together  in 
defense  of  the  liberty  and  Constitution  of  the  country,  and  will 
hereafter  co-operate  as  the  Republican  party,  pledged  to  the  ac- 
complishment of  the  following  purposes:  To  bring  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  Government  back  to  the  control  of  first  principles; 
to  restore  Nebraska  and  Kansas  to  the  position  of  free  territories; 
that,  as  the  Constitution  of  the  United  Stales  vests  in  the  States, 
and  not  in  Congress,  the  power  to  legislate  for  the  extradition  of 
fugitives  from  labor,  to  repeal  and  entirely  abrogate  the  Fugitive 
Slave  law;  to  restrict  slavery  to  those  states  in  which  it  exists; 
to  prohibit  the  admission  of  any  more  slave  states  into  the  Union ; 
to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia;  to  exclude  slavery 
from  all  the  territories  over  which  the  General  Government  has 
exclusive  jurisdiction ;  and  to  resist  the  acquirement  of  any 
more  territories  unless  the  practice  of  slavery  therein  forever 
shall  have  been  prohibited. 

"  3.  Resolved,  That  in  furtherance  of  these  principles  we  will  use 
Buch  Constitutional  and  lawful  means  as  shall  seem  best  adapted 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  75 

to  their  accomplishment,  and  that  we  will  support  no  man  for 
office,  under  the  General  or  State  Government,  who  is  not  positive- 
ly and  fully  committed  to  the  support  of  these  principles,  and 
•whose  personal  character  and  conduct  is  not  a  guarantee  that  he 
is  reliable,  and  who  shall  not  have  abjured  old  party  allegiance 
and  ties." 

In  the  course  of  the  first  debate  between  Douglas  and 
Lincoln,  which  was  held  at  Ottawa,  in  August,  1858, 
Douglas  read  these  resolutions,  declaring  that  Lincoln 
had  participated  in  the  Convention,  and  assisted  in  their 
adoption.  Lincoln  met  this  earliest  of  a  series  of  mis- 
representations with  prompt  denial,  and  proved  that 
he  was  not  a  member  of  the  Convention. 

The  actual  Republican  party  of  Illinois,  dates  its  form- 
ation from  a  period  somewhat  later;  and  Lincoln  was 
one  of  the  first  members  of  the  present  organization. 
Not  so  ultra,  probably,  as  the  indignant  men  who  framed 
the  resolutions  quoted,  he  was  quite  as  firmly  opposed  to 
slavery.  In  the  speech  from  which  he  read,  in  reply  to 
the  charge  of  Douglas,  he  gives  with  Wesleyan  point, 
the  reason  why  indifference  to  slavery  should  be  ab- 
horred : 

"  This  declared  indifference,  but,  as  I  must  think, 
covert  real  zeal  for  the  spread  of  slavery,  I  can  not  but 
hate.  I  hate  it  because  of  the  monstrous  injustice  of 
slavery  itself.  I  hate  it  because  it  deprives  our  repub- 
lican example  of  its  just  influence  in  the  world — enables 
the  enemies  of  free  institutions,  with  plausibility,  to 
taunt  us  as  hypocrites — causes  the  real  friends  of  free- 
dom to  doubt  our  sincerity,  and  especially  because  it 


76          LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

forces  so  many  really  good  men  among  ourselves  into  an 
open  war  with  the  very  fundamental  principles  of  civil 
liberty — criticising  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
and  insisting  that  there  is  no  right  principle  of  action 
but  self-interest." 


i 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

IN  the  Republican  National  Convention  of  1856,  Abra< 
ham  Lincoln  received  one  hundred  and  two  votes  for 
the  Vice-Presidential  nomination.  When  the  standard- 
bearers  of  the  party  had  been  selected,  he  took:  his  rank 
in  the  army  of  freedom,  and  engaged  in  the  great  con- 
flict which  followed.  The  Republicans  showed  their*, 
appreciation  of  his  strength  and  ability  by  placing  him, 
at  the  head  of  their  electoral  ticket  in  Illinois;  and, 
when  in  1858  it  was  determined  to ;  give, ;t.he  /Senatorial 
question  the  form  of  a  popular  .'contest,  by  the  election 
of  a  Legislature  pledged  to  the  people,  for  or  against, 
Douglas,  Abraham  Lincoln  was  chosen  without  dissent 
as  the  champion  of  his  party. 

Much  might  here  be  said  with  regard  to  his  eminent 
fitness  for  the  conduct  of  such  a  canvass ;  but  the  result 
of  the  election,  and  his  published  debates  with  Douglas^ 
are  the  best  commentary  upon  his  qualifications.  ^ 

The  Republican  State  ticket  of  that  year  was  carried 
by  a  decisive  majority,  and  the  Legislature  was  lost  only, 
through  the  unfair  manner  in  which  the  State  was  dis- 
tricted, and  which  threw  that  body  into  the  hands  of 
the  Democrats  in  spite  of  the  popular  will. 

It  may  not  be  improper  to  allude  particularly  to  cir- 

(77) 


78          LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

cumstances  connected  with  the  debates  between  Lincoln 
and  Douglas,  which  have  been  so  significant  in  their 
result,  and  which  have  practically  made  United  States 
Senators  in  Illinois  elective  by  the  people  instead  of 
the  Legislature. 

Lincoln's  first  great  speech  of  that  year  was  made  at 
Springfield,  on  the  17th  of  June,  before  the  State  Con- 
vention which  named  him  as  the  Republican  candidate 
for  Senator.  In  this  speech  he  preached  the  moral  con- 
flict, which  has  always  existed  and  always  must  exist 
between  the  principle  of  freedom  and  the  principle  of 
slavery;  noticed  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise, 
the  Dred  Scott  decision,  and  the  revival  of  the  slave- 
trade;  and  with  masterly  effect  exhibited  the  secret  con- 
cert with  which  all  the  enemies  of  freedom  had  acted  in 
their  assaults  upon  our  liberties.  The  speaker  concluded 
with  these  memorable  words,  which  every  Republican 
should  keep  in  mind,  for  they  have  gathered  significance 
^n  the  two  years  elapsed  since  their  utterance : 

"Our  cause,  then,  must  be  intrusted  to,  and  conducted 
by,  its  own  undoubted  friends — those  whose  hands  are 
free,  whose  hearts  are  in  the  work — who  do  care  for  the 
result.  Two  years  ago  the  Republicans  of  the  nation 
mustered  over  thirteen  hundred  thousand  strong.  We 
did  this  under  the  single  impulse  of  resistance  to  a  com- 
mon danger,  with  every  external  circumstance  against 
us.  Of  strange,  discordant,  and  even  hostile  elements, 
we  gathered  from  the  four  winds,  and  formed  and  fought 
the  battle  through,  under  the  constant  hot  fire  of  a  dis- 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OP   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.         79 

ciplined,  proud,  and  pampered  enemy.  Did  we  brave  all 
then,  to  falter  now  ? — now,  when  that  same  enemy  is 
wavering,  dissevered,  and  belligerent?  The  result  is 
not  doubtful.  We  shall  not  fail — if  we  stand  firm,  we 
shall  not  fail.  Wise  counsels  may  accelerate,  or  mis- 
takes delay  it,  but,  sooner  or  later,  the  victory  is  sure  to 
come." 

The  reply  made  by  Douglas  to  this  speech  was  on  the 
occasion  of  his  reception  at  Chicago  in  the  July  follow- 
ing. Lincoln  was  present,  and  spoke  in  the  same  city 
on  the  next  day.  Two  more  great  speeches  by  Doug- 
las, and  one  more  speech  by  Lincoln  were  made  before 
they  entered  the  lists  in  debate. 

In  one  of  those  speeches,  Douglas  found  occasion — 
for  he  was  then  addressing  Lincoln's  old  friends  at 
Springfield — to  pay  his  tribute  to  the  worth  and  great- 
ness of  his  opponent: 

"You  all  know  that  I  am  an  amiable,  good-natured 
man,  and  I  take  great  pleasure  in  bearing  testimony  to 
the  fact  that  Mr.  Lincoln  is  a  kind-hearted,  amiable, 
good-natured  gentleman,  with  whom  no  man  has  a  right 
to  pick  a  quarrel,  even  if  he  wanted  one.  He  is  a  wor- 
thy gentleman.  I  have  known  him  for  twenty-five  years, 
and  there  is  no  better  citizen,  and  no  kinder-hearted 
man.  Pie  is  a  fine  lawyer,  possesses  high  ability,  and 
there  is  no  objection  to  him,  except  the  monstrous  rev- 
olutionary doctrines  with  which  he  is  identified." 

On  the  24th  of  July,  Lincoln  wrote  to  Douglas  pro- 
posing the  debates  which  have  since  become  so  famous. 


80         LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

Douglas  made  answer  that "  recent  events  had  interposed 
difficulties  in  the  way  of  such  an  arrangement,"  that  the 
Democratic  Central  Committee  had  already  made  appoint- 
ments for  him  at  different  places;  but  in  order  to  accom- 
modate Mr.  Lincoln,  he  would  meet  him  in  seven  of  the 
nine  Congressional  Districts  where  they  had  not  yet 
spoken.  He  expressed  surprise,  that  if  it  was  Lincoln's 
original  intention  to  propose  these  debates,  he  should 
have  waited  until  after  the  plan  of  the  campaign  had 
been  arranged  by  the  Democratic  Central  Committee, 
before  he  made  known  his  proposition. 

This  letter  was  also  written  on  the  24th  of  July.  On 
the  29th  Lincoln  replied,  from  Springfield: 

"  Protesting  that  your  insinuations  of  attempted  un- 
fai'rness  on  my  part  are  unjust,  and  with  the  hope  that 
you  did  not  very  considerately  make  them,  I  proceed  to 
reply.  To  your  statement  that  '  It  has  been  suggested, 
recently,  that  an  arrangement  had  been  made  to  bring 
out  a  third  candidate  for  the  United  States  Senate,  who, 
•with  yourself,  should  canvass  the  State  in  opposition  to 
me,'  etc.,*  I  can  only  say,  that  such  suggestion  must 


*  The  following  U  the  statement,  in  Douglas's  letter,  alluded  to  by  Lincoln  : 
"Besides,  there  is  another  consideration  which  should  be  kept  in  mind.  It 
has  been  suggested,  recently,  that  an  arrangement  had  been  madi-  to  bring  out  a 
third  candidate  for  the  United  States  Senate,  who,  with  yourself,  should  canvass 
the  State  in  opposition  to  me,  with  no  other  purpose  than  to  insure  my  defeat,  by 
dividing  the  Democratic  party  fur  your  benefit.  If  I  should  make  this  arrange- 
ment with  you,  it  is  more  than  probable  that  this  other  candidate,  who  lias  a 
common  obj<>ct  with  you,  would  desire  to  become  a  party  to  it.  and  claim  the 
right  to  speak  from  the  same  stand  ;  so  that  he  and  you,  iu  concert,  might  be 
able  to  take  the  opening  and  closing  speech  in  every  COM." 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.          81 

have  been  made  by  yourself,  for  certainly  none  such  ha3 
been  made  by  or  to  me,  or  otherwise,  to  my  knowledge, 
Surely,  you  did  not  deliberately  conclude,  as  you  insinu- 
ate, that  I  was  expecting  to  draw  you  into  an  arrange- 
ment of  terms,  to  be  agreed  on  by  yourself,  by  which 
a  third  candidate  and  myself,  '  in  concert,  might  be 
able  to  take  the  opening  and  closing  speech  in  every 
case.' 

"As  to  your  surprise  that  I  did  not  sooner  make  the 
proposal  to  divide  time  with  you,  I  can  only  say,  I  made 
it  as  soon  as  I  resolved  to  make  it.  I  did  not  know  but 
that  such  proposal  would  come  from  you  ;  I  waited,  re- 
spectfully, to  see.  It  may  have  been  well  known  to  you 
that  you  went  to  Springfield  for  the  purpose  of  agreeing 
on  the  plan  of  campaign  ;  but  it  was  not  so  known  to 
me.  When  your  appointments  were  announced  in  the 
papers,  extending  only  to  the  21st  of  August,  I,  for  the 
first  time,  considered  it  certain  that  you  would  make  no 
proposal  to  me,  and  then  resolved  that,  if  my  friends 
concurred,  I  would  make  one  to  you.  As  soon  there- 
after as  I  could  see  and  consult  with  friends  satisfacto- 
rily, I  did  make  the  proposal.  It  did  not  occur  to  me 
that  the  proposed  arrangement  could  derange  your  plans 
after  the  latest  of  your  appointments  already  made. 
After  that,  there  was,  before  the  election,  largely  over 
two  months  of  clear  time. 

"For  you  to  say  that  we  have  already  spoken  at  Chi- 
cago and  Springfield,  and  that  on  both  occasions  I  had 
the  concluding  speech,  is  hardly  a  fair  statement.  The 


82          LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

truth  rather  is  this  :  At  Chicago,  July  9th,  you  made 
a  carefully-prepared  conclusion  on  iny  speech  of  June 
16th.  Twenty- four  hours  after,  I  made  a  hasty  conclu- 
sion on  yours  of  the  9th.  You  had  six  days  to  prepare, 
and  concluded  on  me  again  at  Bloomington  on  the  16th. 
Twenty-four  hours  after,  I  concluded  again  on  you  at 
Springfield.  In  the  mean  time,  you  had  made  another 
conclusion  on  me  at  Springfield,  which  I  did  not  hear, 
and  of  the  contents  of  which  I  knew  nothing  when  I 
spoke  ;  so  that  your  speech  made  in  daylight,  and  mine 
at  night,  of  the  17th,  at  Springfield,  were  both  made  in 
perfect  independence  of  each  other.  The  dates  of  mak- 
ing all  these  speeches  will  show,  I  think,  that  in  the 
matter  of  time  for  preparation,  the  advantage  has  all 
been  on  your  side ;  and  that  none  of  the  external  cir- 
cumstances have  stood  to  my  advantage." 

Lincoln  having  left  all  the  arrangements  of  time, 
place,  and  manner  of  debate  to  Douglas,  the  latter  made 
the  following  proposition,  which,  (although  it  allowed 
Douglas  four  openings  and  closes  to  Lincoln's  three,  and 
so  gave  considerable  advantage  to  him,)  Lincoln  prompt- 
ly accepted  : 

"BEMENT,  PIATT  Co.,  ILL.,  July  30,  1858. 
"  DEAR  SIR  : 

"  Your  letter,  dated  yesterday,  accepting  my  proposi- 
tion for  a  joint  discussion  at  one  prominent  point  in 
each  Congressional  District,  as  stated  in  my  previous 
letter,  yrap.  received  this  morning. 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          83 

"  The  times  and  places  designated  are  as  follows  : 

Ottawa,  La  Salic  county August  21st,  1858. 

Freeport,  Stephenson  county "  27th, 

Jonesboro,  Union  county September  15th, 

Charleston,  Coles  county "  18th, 

Galesburgli,  Knox  county October  7th, 

Quiucy,  Adams  county "  13th, 

Alton,  Madison  county "  15th, 

"I  agree  to  your  suggestion  that  we  shall  alternately 
open  and  close  the  discussion.  I  will  speak  at  Ottawa 
one  hour,  you  can  reply,  occupying  an  hour  and  a  half, 
and  I  will  then  follow  for  half  an  hour.  At  Freeport, 
you  shall  open  the  discussion  and  speak  one  hour;  I  will 
follow  for  an  hour  and  a  half,  and  you  can  then  reply 
for  half  an  hour.  We  will  alternate  in  like  manner  in 
each  successive  place. 

"  Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

"S.  A.  DOUGLAS. 

"  HON.  A.  LINCOLN,  Springfield,  111." 

In  the  intervals  between  the  debates,  which  took  place 
as  arranged,  both  speakers  addressed  audiences  sepa- 
rately, and  the  work  on  both  sides  was  carried  on  with 
unflagging  energy. 

No  one,  it  seems  to  me,  can  read  these  debates  with- 
out admiration  of  Lincoln's  ability,  courage,  and  truth, 
while  the  impression  left  by  Douglas  is  that  of  a  great 
mind  bending  all  its  energies  to  a  purpose  beneath  it ; 
of  an  acute  logician  resorting  to  sophistry  when  meeting 
his  opponent's  arguments,  and  to  adroit  misrepresenta- 


84          LIFE  AXD  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

tion  of  language  and  position,  when  assailing  his  opin- 
ions. 

The  questions  discussed  were  substantially  the  same 
that  are  at  issue  now.  The  spirit  of  pro-slavery  aggres- 
sion takes  many  forms,  but  in  nature  remains  unchanged. 
Lincoln  pursued  it  through  all  its  disguises,  and  ex- 
posed it  at  every  turn.  The  subtlest  and  most  audacious 
champion  of  slavery  that  had  ever  proved  false  to  free- 
dom, was  not  equal  to  the  conflict.  As  the  pretended 
advocate  of  the  right  of  every  man  to  govern  himself 
and  regulate  his  own  affairs,  Douglas  was  full  of  words. 
When  a  flash  of  truth  showed  him  the  real  advocate  of 
one  man's  right  to  enslave  another,  he  was  dumb.  The 
banner  of  popular  sovereignty  smote  pleasantly  upon  the 
sight.  When  Lincoln  reversed  it,  and  men  read  the 
true  inscription,  they  saw  that  it  was  the  signal  of  dis- 
cord, oppression,  and  violence.  There  were  old  stains 
upon  that  gay  piece  of  bunting ;  stains  of  blood  from 
the  cabin  hearths  of  Kansas,  and  from  the  marble  floor 
of  the  Senate  hall;  and  a  marvelous  ill-odor  of  cruelty 
hung  about  it,  as  if  it  were,  in  fact,  no  better  than  the 
flag  of  a  slave-ship.  Where  its  shadow  fell  across  the 
future  of  a  State,  civilization  and  humanity  seemed  to 
shrink  back,  and  a  race  of  bondmen  and  their  masters 
thinly  peopled  a  barren  land  that  would  have  "  laughed 
in  harvests"  in  the  light  of  freedom. 

The  Douglas  dogma  never  has  been  so  thoroughly 
refuted,  as  by  Lincoln's  speeches  in  those  debates;  and 
Douglas  himself  never  suffered  such  entire  defeat,  in  the 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.          85 

eyes  of  the  country.  The  truth  gave  the  victory  to 
Lincoln ;  a  trick  bestowed  the  Senatorship  upon  Doug- 
las. 

In  May,  1859,  when  the  amendment  to  the  Constitu- 
tion of  Massachusetts,  extending  the  term  of  naturaliza- 
tion, aroused  the  apprehensions  of  many  German  Re- 
publicans, Dr.  Theodor  Canisius,  a  German  citizen  of 
Illinois,  addressed  a  letter  to  Lincoln,  asking  his  opinion 
of  the  amendment,  and  inquiring  whether  he  favored  a 
fusion  of  the  Republicans  with  the  other  elements  of 
opposition  in  1860.  Writing  from  Springfield,  Lincoln 
replies : 

,•  "Massachusetts  is  a  sovereign  and  independent  State, 
and  I  have  no  right  to  advise  her  in  her  policy.  Yet, 
if  any  one  is  desirous  to  draw  a  conclusion  as  to  what  I 
would  do  from  what  she  has  done,  I  may  speak  without 
impropriety.  I  say,  then,  that  so  far  as  I  understand 
the  Massachusetts  provision,  I  am  against  its  adoption, 
not  only  in  Illinois,  but  in  every  other  place  in  which 
I  have  the  right  to  oppose  it.  As  I  understand  the 
spirit  of  our  institutions,  it  is  designed  to  promote  the 
elevation  of  men.*  I  am,  therefore,  hostile  to  anything 
that  tends  to  their  debasement.  It  is  well  known  that 
I  deplore  the  oppressed  condition  of  the  blacks,  and  it 
•would,  therefore,  be  very  inconsistent  for  me  to  look 
with  approval  upon  any  measure  that  infringes  upon  the 
inalienable  rights  of  white  men,  whether  or  not  they  are 
"born  in  another  land  or  speak  a  different  language  from 
our  own. 


86          LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

"In  respect  to  a  fusion,  I  am  in  favor  of  it  whenever 
it  can  be  effected  on  Republican  principles,  but  upon 
no  other  condition.  A  fusion  upon  any  other  platform 
would  be  as  insane  as  unprincipled.  It  would  thereby 
lose  the  whole  North,  while  the  common  enemy  would 
still  have  the  support  of  the  entire  South.  The  ques- 
tion in  relation  to  men  is  different.  There  are  good 
and  patriotic  men  and  able  statesmen  in  the  South  whom 
I  would  willingly  support  if  they  would  place  them- 
selves on  Republican  ground ;  but  I  shall  oppose  the 
lowering  of  the  Republican  standard  even  by  a  hair's- 
breadth." 

During  the  gubernatorial  canvass  of  1859,  in  Ohio, 
Lincoln  was  invited  to  address  the  people  of  that  State, 
and  appeared  before  them,  at  Columbus  and  Cincinnati, 
in  September.  The  impression  made  was  one  of  univer- 
sal favor ;  and  it  was  through  the  interest  awakened  by 
these  speeches,  that  the  Republican  Central  Committee 
and  State  officers  of  Ohio,  were  led  to  request  copies  of 
his  debates  with  Douglas,  for  publication  in  book-form. 
The  Ohioans  went  to  hear  him  with  full  allowances  for  the 
exaggerations  of  Illinois  enthusiasm ;  when  they  had 
heard  him,  their  own  admiration  equaled  that  of  the 
Illinoians. 

It  was,  doubtless,  with  still  greater  surprise  that  New 
England  and  New  York  listened  to  him.  His  speech  at 
the  Cooper  Institute,  in  the  commercial  and  intellectual 
metropolis,  was  the  most  brilliant  success  in  everything 
that  makes  such  an  effort  successful.  His  audience  was 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  87 

vast  in  numbers,  and  profoundly  attentive.  They  found 
him,  indeed,  lank  and  angular  in  form,  but  of  fine 
oratorial  presence;  lucid  and  simple  in  his  style,  vigor- 
ous in  argument,  speaking  with  a  full,  clear  voice.  He 
addressed  appeals  of  reason  to  the  sense  and  conscience 
of  his  hearers,  and  skillfully  hit  the  humor  of  a  critical 
and  unfamiliar  people. 


.  CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  Republican  National  Convention,  which  assem- 
bled at  Chicago  on  the  16th  of  May,  was  no  less  marked 
by  a  diversity  of  preferences  than  a  unity  of  interests. 
In  three  days  it  accomplished  its  work — the  conciliation 
of  men  and  the  assimilation  of  sections  on  minor  points 
of  difference.  In  three  days  Abraham  Lincoln  was  nom- 
inated, and  the  armies  of  the  irrepressible  conflict  were 
united  under  the  banner  of  the  man  who  was  the  first 
to  utter  that  great  truth,  which  all  men  felt.* 

I  need  hardly  recount  the  incidents  of  that  Conven- 
tion, of  which  the  great  event  has  proven  so  satisfac- 
tory. They  are  all  fresh  in  the  minds  of  the  people, 
who  watched,  hour  by  hour,  and  day  by  day,  the  pro- 
ceedings of  one  of  the  most  distinguished  bodies  which 
ever  assembled  in  this  country. 

The  Convention  met  in  Chicago  without  factitious 
advantages.  The  failure  of  the  Democracy  to  nominate 
at  Charleston  left  the  Republicans  in  the  dark  as  to  the 
champion  whom  they  were  to  combat,  and  there  was 
nothing  to  be  gained  by  the  choice  of  a  man  with  refer- 
ence to  a  Democratic  probability. 


*  See  Lincoln's  speech  at  Springfield,  June  17,  1653. 
(88) 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.          89 

What  lay  before  the  Convention,  then,  was  the  task 
of  choosing  a  positive  man  embodying  decided  Repub- 
lican principles,  whose  strength  and  decision  of  opinions 
should  attract  one  side  of  the  party,  while  nothing  in 
his  history  should  repel  the  other. 

Up  to  the  time  of  the  third  ballot,  which  resulted  in 
the  nomination  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  all  the  indications 
were  favorable  to  the  success  of  William  H.  Seward. 
That  great  man,  whom  no  fortuity  can  lessen  in  the 
proud  regard  of  the  party,  had  rallied  to  his  cause  a 
host  of  friends — attached,  powerful,  vigilant.  These 
came  to  Chicago,  and  into  the  Convention,  with  a  solid 
strength  that  swept  everything  before  it. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  the  only  candidate  upon  whom  a 
considerable  number  of  those  who  opposed  Mr.  Seward 
from  policy,  were  united ;  but  it  was  not  until  after  two 
votes  of  sentiment  that  a  sufficient  force  was  diverted 
from  other  favorites  to  swell  Mr.  Lincoln's  vote  into  a 
majority. 

The  leader  of  the  New  York  delegation,  who  had 
worked  so  faithfully  for  Mr.  Seward,  was  the  first  to 
move  the  unanimous  nomination  of  Lincoln,  which  was 
done  amid  demonstrations  of  the  wildest  enthusiasm,  in 
the  wigwam  of  the  Convention  and  throughout  the  city 
of  Chicago.  At  the  same  instant  the  lightning  flashed 
the  tidings  throughout  the  land,  and  in  a  thousand 
towns  and  cities  the  cannon  thundered  back  the  jubi- 
lant responses  of  the  people. 

The  fact  of  his  nomination  was  at  once  telegraphed 
8 


90         LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

to  Lincoln,  at  Springfield.  He  received  it  with  charac- 
teristic quiet.  Seated  in  the  Illinois  State  Journal  office, 
talking  over  the  Convention  with  a  number  of  friends,  he 
was  approached  by  the  telegraphic  operator.  "  Mr.  Lin- 
coln, you  are  nominated  for  the  Presidency."  Lincoln 
took  the  proffered  dispatch  in  silence,  and  read  it.  At 
length  he  folded  it  carefully,  and  saying  to  the  exuber- 
ant bystanders,  "  There  is  a  little  woman  down  street 
who  would  like  to  know  something  about  this,"  went 
home  to  communicate  the  news  to  his  wife. 

The  little  city  of  Springfield  was  in  a  phrensy  of  ex- 
citement; and  that  night  all  the  streets  were  ablaze 
with  bonfires,  and  thronged  by  the  rejoicing  Republi- 
cans. The  fact  of  the  nomination  of  the  man  whom 
every  one  of  his  fellow-townsmen  regarded  with  pride, 
was  excuse  enough  for  all  sorts  of  vocal  and  pyrotechnic 
extravagances. 

The  next  day,  the  excursion  train  arrived  from  Chi- 
cago with  a  large  number  of  delegates,  and  the  Com- 
mittee appointed  by  the  Convention  to  make  Lincoln 
officially  acquainted  with  his  nomination. 

The  deputation  was  received  at  Mr.  Lincoln's  house, 
and  when  the  guests  had  assembled  in  the  parlor,  Mr. 
Ashmun,  the  President  of  the  Convention,  said  : 

"I  have,  sir,  the  honor,  in  behalf  of  the  gentlemen 
who  are  present,  a  Committee  appointed  by  the  Republi- 
can Convention,  recently  assembled  at  Chicago,  to  dis- 
charge a  most  pleasant  duty.  We  have  come,  sir,  under 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  91 

a  vote  of  instructions  to  that  Committee,  to  notify  you 
that  you  have  been  selected  by  the  Convention  of  the 
Kepublicans  at  Chicago,  for  President  of  the  United 
States.  They  instruct  us,  sir,  to  notify  you  of  that 
selection,  and  that  Committee  deem  it  not  only  respect- 
ful to  yourself,  but  appropriate  to  the  important  matter 
which  they  have  in  hand,  that  they  should  come  in  per- 
son, and  present  to  you  the  authentic  evidence  of  the 
action  of  that  Convention  ;  and,  sir,  without  any  phrase 
which  shall  either  be  considered  personally  plauditory  to 
yourself,  or  which  shall  have  any  reference  to  the  prin- 
ciples involved  in  the  questions  which  are  connected  with 
your  nomination,  I  desire  to  present  to  you  the  letter 
which  has  been  prepared,  and  which  informs  you  of  the 
nomination,  and  with  it  the  platform,  resolutions,  and 
sentiments  which  the  Convention  adopted.  Sir,  at  your 
convenience  we  shall  be  glad  to  receive  from  you  such  a 
response  as  it  may  be  your  pleasure  to  give  us." 

To  this  address  Mr.  Lincoln  listened  with  grave  atten- 
tion, and  replied : 

"MR.  CHAIRMAN  AND  GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  COMMITTEE: 

"  I  tender  to  you  and  through  you  to  the  Kepublican 
National  Convention,  and  all  the  people  represented  in 
it,  my  profoundest  thanks  for  the  high  honor  done  me, 
which  you  now  formally  announce.  Deeply,  and  even 
painfully  sensible  of  the  great  responsibility  which  is 
inseparable  from  this  high  honor — a  responsibility  which 


92         LIFE  AND   SPEECHES   OP   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

I  could  almost  wish  had  fallen  upon  some  one  of  the  far 
more  eminent  men  and  experienced  statesmen  whose  dis- 
tinguished names  were  before  the  Convention,  I  shall, 
by  your  leave,  consider  more  fully  the  resolutions  of  the 
Convention  denominated  the  platform,  and  without  un- 
necessary or  unreasonable  delay,  respond  to  you,  Mr. 
Chairman,  in  writing,  not  doubting  that  the  platform 
will  be  found  satisfactory,  and  the  nomination  gratefully 
accepted. 

"  And  now  I  will  not  longer  defer  the  pleasure  of 
taking  you,  and  each  of  you,  by  the  hand." 

After  this  response,  it  is  proper  to  immediately  add  the 
letter  in  which  Mr.  Lincoln  has  since  formally  accepted 
the  nomination  : 

"  SPRINGFIELD,  ILLINOIS,  May  23,  1860. 
"  HON.  GEORGE  ASHMUN, 

'President  of  the  Republican  National  Convention: 
"  SIR  :  I  accept  the  nomination  tendered  me  by  the 
Convention  over  which  you  presided,  of  which  I  am 
formally  apprised  in  the  letter  of  yourself  and  others 
acting  as  a  Committee  of  the  Convention  for  that  purpose. 
The  declaration  of  principles  and  sentiments  which  ac- 
companies your  letter  meets  my  approval,  and  it  shall 
be  my  care  not  to  violate  it,  or  disregard  it  in  any  part. 
"  Imploring  the  assistance  of  Divine  Providence,  and 
with  due  regard  to  the  views  and  feelings  of  all  who 
were  represented  in  the  Convention,  to  the  rights  of  all 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  93 

the  states  and  territories  and  people  of  the  nation,  to 
the  inviolability  of  the  Constitution,  and  the  perpetual 
union,  harmony,  and  prosperity  of  all,  I  am  most  happy 
to  co-operate  for  the  practical  success  of  the  principles 
declared  by  the  Convention. 

"Your  obliged  friend  and  fellow-citizen, 

"ABRAHAM  LINCOLN." 

People  who  visit  Mr.  Lincoln  are  pleased  no  less  at 
the  simple  and  quiet  style  in  which  he  lives,  than  at  the 
perfect  ease  and  cordiality  with  which  they  are  received. 
The  host  puts  off  half  his  angularity  at  home,  or  hides 
it  beneath  the  mantle  of  hospitality;  and  the  hostess 
is  found  "a  pattern  of  lady-like  courtesy  and  polish," 
who  "converses  with  freedom  and  grace,  and  is  thor- 
oughly au  fait  in  all  the  little  amenities  of  society,"  and 
who  will  "do  the  honors  of  the  White  House  with 
appropriate  grace."  Intellectually,  she  is  said  to  be 
little  her  husband's  inferior. 

Lincoln's  residence  is  a  comfortable  two-story  frame 
house,  not  now  new  in  appearance,  and  situated  in  the 
northeast  part  of  Springfield.  The  grounds  about  it, 
which  are  not  spacious,  are  neatly  and  tastefully  kept. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  political  room  is  an  apartment  in  the 
State  House,  at  the  door  of  which  you  knock  uncere- 
moniously. A  sturdy  voice  calls  out,  "Come  in!"  and 
you  find  yourself  in  the  presence  of  a  man  who  rises 
to  the  hight  of  six  feet  three  inches,  as  you  enter. 
He  shakes  you  with  earnest  cordiality  by  the  hand — 


94          LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

receiving  you  as  in  the  old  days  he  would  have  received 
a  friend  who  called  upon  him  at  his  farm-work ;  for  those 
who  have  always  known  him,  say  that,  though  Lincoln 
is  now  more  distinguished,  he  has  always  been  a  great 
man,  and  his  simple  and  hearty  manners  have  undergone 
no  change.  You  find  him,  in  physique,  thin  and  wiry, 
and  he  has  an  appearance  of  standing  infirmly  upon 
his  feet,  which  often  deceived  those  who  contended  with 
him  in  the  wrestle,  in  his  younger  days. 

The  great  feature  of  the  man's  face  is  his  brilliant  and 
piercing  eye,  which  has  never  been  dimmed  by  any  vice, 
great  or  small.  His  rude  and  vigorous  early  life  contrib- 
uted to  strengthen  the  robust  constitution  which  he  in- 
herited, and  he  is  now,  at  fifty,  in  the  prime  of  life,  with 
rugged  health,  though  bearing,  in  the  lines  of  his  face, 
the  trace  of  severe  and  earnest  thought. 


The  biographer's  task  ends  here,  and  he  does  not  feel 
that  any  speculations  with  regard  to  the  future  would  be 
of  great  worth  or  pertinence,  though  conjecture  is  easy 
and  a  prophetic  reputation  possible.  He  prefers  to  leave 
the  future  of  Lincoln  to  Providence  and  to  the  people, 
who  often  make  history  without  the  slightest  respect  to 
the  arrangements  of  sagacious  writers. 


o 
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MEMORABILIA 


CHICAGO     CONVENTION, 


(97) 


MEMORABILIA 


CHICAGO    CONVENTION. 


THE  Convention  was  called  to  order,  on  the  morning 
of  the  16th,  by  Governor  Morgan,  of  New  York, 

Mr.  David  Wilmot,  of  Pennsylvania,  took  the  chair 
as  temporary  President. 

In  the  afternoon,  Mr.  George  Ashmun,  of  Massachu- 
setts, was  chosen  permanent  Presidents 


CHICAGO  REPUBLICAN  PLATFORM, 

ABOPTEB  MAY  17,  I860,  BY  THE  REPUBLICAN  NATIONAL  CONVENTION, 

Resolved,  That  we,  the  delegated  representatives  of 
the  Republican  electors  of  the  United  States,  in  Conven- 
tion assembled,  in  the  discharge  of  the  duty  we  owe  to 
our  constituents  and  our  country,  unite  in  the  following 
declarations : 

First.  That  the  history  of  the  nation  during  the  last 
four  years  has  fully  established  the  propriety  and  neces- 
sity of  the  organization  and  perpetuation  of  the  Repub- 
lican party,  and  that  the  causes  which  called  it  into 

(99) 


100       LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

existence  are  permanent  in  their  nature,  and  now,  more 
than  ever  before,  demand  its  peaceful  and  constitutional 
triumph. 

Second.  That  the  maintenance  of  the  principles  pro- 
mulgated in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  em- 
bodied in  the  Federal  Constitution,  is  essential  to  the 
preservation  of  our  Republican  institutions,  and  that  the 
Federal  Constitution,  the  rights  of  the  states,  and  the 
Union  of  the  states,  must  and  shall  be  preserved. 

Third.  That  to  the  Union  of  the  states  this  nation 
owes  its  unprecedented  increase  in  population  ;  its  sur- 
.prising  development  of  material  resources;  its  rapid 
augmentation  of  wealth  ;  its  happiness  at  home  and  its 
honor  abroad,  and  we  hold  in  abhorrence  all  schemes 
for  disunion,  come  from  whatever  source  they  may  ;  and 
we  congratulate  the  country  that  no  Republican  member 
of  Congress  has  uttered  or  countenanced  a  threat  of  dis- 
union, so  often  made  by  Democratic  members  of  Con- 
gress, without  rebuke  and  with  applause  from  their 
political  associates;  and  we  denounce  those  threats  of 
disunion,  in  case  of  a  popular  overthrow  of  their  ascend- 
ency, as  denying  the  vital  principles  of  a  free  govern- 
ment, and  as  an  avowal  of  contemplated  treason,  which 
it  is  the  imperative  duty  of  an  indignant  people  strongly 
to  rebuke  and  forever  silence. 

luvrth.  That  the  maintenance  inviolate  of  the  rights 
of  the  states,  and  especially  the  right  of  each  state  to 
order  and  control  its  own  domestic  institutions,  accord- 
ing to  its  own  judgment  exclusively,  is  essential  to  that 
balance  of  power  on  which  the  perfection  and  endurance 
of  our  political  faith  depends,  and  we  denounce  the  law- 
less invasion  by  an  armed  force  of  any  state  or  territory, 
no  matter  under  what  pretext,  as  among  the  gravest  of 
crimes. 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.       101 

Fifth.  That  the  present  Democratic  administration  has 
far  exceeded  our  worst  apprehensions  in  its  measureless 
subserviency  to  the  exactions  of  a  sectional  interest,  as 
is  especially  evident  in  its  desperate  exertions  to  force 
the  infamous  Lecompton  Constitution  upon  the  protest- 
ing people  of  Kansas  ;  in  construing  the  personal  rela- 
tion between  master  and  servant  to  involve  an  unqual- 
ified property  in  persons  ;  in  its  attempted  enforcement 
everywhere,  on  land  and  sea,  through  the  intervention 
of  Congress  and  the  Federal  courts,  of  the  extreme 
pretensions  of  a  purely  local  interest,  and  in  its  general 
and  unvarying  abuse  of  the  power  intrusted  to  it  by  a 
confiding  people. 

Sixth.  That  the  people  justly  view  with  alarm  the 
reckless  extravagance  which  pervades  every  department 
of  the  Federal  Government;  that  a  return  to  rigid  econ- 
omy and  accountability  is  indispensable  to  arrest  the 
system  of  plunder  of  the  public  treasury  by  favored  par- 
tisans ;  while  the  recent  startling  developments  of  fraud 
and  corruption  at  the  Federal  Metropolis  show  that 
an  entire  change  of  administration  is  imperatively  de- 
manded. 

Seventh.  That  the  new  dogma  that  the  Constitution 
of  its  own  force  carries  slavery  into  any  or  all  the  ter- 
ritories of  the  United  States,  is  a  dangerous  political 
heresy,  at  variance  with  the  explicit  provisions  of  that 
instrument  itself,  with  cotemporaneous  exposition,  and 
with  legislative  and  judicial  precedent;  is  revolutionary 
in  its  tendency,  and  subversive  of  the  peace  and  har- 
mony of  the  country. 

Eighth.  That  the  normal  condition  of  all  the  terri- 
tory of  the  United  States  is  that  of  freedom  ;  that  as  our 
republican  fathers,  whon  they  had  abolished  slavery  in 
all  our  national  territory,  ordaiaed  that  no  persou  should 


102       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

be  deprived  of  life,  liberty,  or  property,  without  due  pro- 
cess of  law,  it  becomes  our  duty,  by  legislation,  when- 
ever such  legislation  is  necessary,  to  maintain  this  pro- 
vision of  the  Constitution  against  all  attempt  to  violate 
it;  and  we  deny  the  authority  of  Congress,  or  a  Terri- 
torial Legislature,  or  of  any  individuals,  to  give  legal 
existence  to  slavery  in  any  .territory  of  the  United 
States. 

Ninth.  That  we  brand  the  recent  reopening  of  the 
African  slave-trade,  under  the  cover  of  our  national 
flag,  aided  by  perversions  of  judicial  power,  as  a  crime 
against  humanity,  a  burning  shame  to  our  country  and 
age;  and  we  call  upon  Congress  to  take  prompt  and  effi- 
cient measures  for  the  total  and  final  suppression  of 
that  execrable  traffic. 

Tenth.  That  in  the  recent  vetoes  by  their  Federal 
Governors  of  the  acts  of  the  Legislatures  of  Kansas  and 
Nebraska,  prohibiting  slavery  in  those  territories,  we 
find  a  practical  illustration  of  the  boasted  Democratic 
principle  of  non-intervention  and  popular  sovereignty, 
embodied  in  the  Kansas  and  Nebraska  bill,  and  a  de- 
nunciation of  the  deception  and  fraud  involved  therein. 

Eleventh.  That  Kansas  should,  of  right,  be  immedi- 
ately admitted  as  a  state  under  the  Constitution  re- 
cently formed  and  adopted  by  her  people,  and  accepted 
by  the  House  of  Representatives. 

TtceffJi.  That  while  providing  revenue  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  General  Government  by  duties  upon  im- 
posts, sound  policy  requires  such  an  adjustment  of  these 
imposts  as  to  encourage  the  development  of  the  indus- 
tiial  interest  of  the  whole  country;  and  we  commend 
that  policy  of  national  exchanges  which  secures  to  the 
workingmen  liberal  wages,  to  agriculture  remunerating 
prices,  to  mechanics  aad  manufacturers  au  adequate  re- 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OP  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.       103 

ward  for  their  skill,  labor,  and  enterprise,  and  to  the 
nation  commercial  prosperity  and  independence. 

Thirteenth.  That  we  protest  against  any  sale  or  alien- 
ation to  others  of  the  public  lands  held  by  actual  set- 
tlers, and  against  any  view  of  the  Free  Homestead  policy 
which  regards  the  settlers  as  paupers  or  supplicants  for 
public  bounty,  and  we  demand  the  passage  by  Congress 
of  the  complete  and  satisfactory  Homestead  measure 
which  has  already  passed  the  House. 

Fourteenth.  That  the  National  Republican  party  is 
opposed  to  any  change  in  our  naturalization  laws,  or  any 
state  legislation  by  which  the  rights  of  citizenship  hith- 
erto accorded  to  emigrants  from  foreign  lands  shall  be 
abridged  or  impaired,  and  in  favor  of  giving  a  full  and 
efficient  protection  to  the  rights  of  all  classes  of  citi- 
zens, whether  native  or  naturalized,  both  at  home  and 
abroad. 

Fifteenth.  That  appropriations  by  Congress  for  River 
and  Harbor  improvements  of  a  national  character,  re- 
quired for  the  accommodation  and  security  of  our  ex- 
isting commerce,  are  authorized  by  the  Constitution  and 
justified  by  an  obligation  of  the  Government  to  protect 
the  lives  and  property  of  its  citizens. 

Sixteenth.  That  a  railroad  to  the  Pacific  Ocean  is  im- 
peratively demanded  by  the  interests  of  the  whole  coun- 
try ;  that  the  Federal  Government  ought  to  render  im- 
mediate and  efficient  aid  in  its  construction,  and  that  as 
preliminary  thereto,  a  daily  overland  mail  should  be 
promptly  established. 

Seventeenth.  Finally,  having  thus  set  forth  our  dis- 
tinctive principles  and  views,  we  invite  the  co-operation 
of  all  citizens,  however  differing  on  other  questions, 
who  substantially  agree  with  us  in  their  affirmance  and 
support. 


104       LIFE   AND    SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

On  motion  of  GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS,  of  New  York, 
the  following  was  added  to  the  second  resolution  : 

"That  we  solemnly  reassert  the  self-evident  truths 
that  all  are  endowed  by  the  Creator  with  certain  ina- 
lienable rights,  among  which  are  those  of  life,  liberty, 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness;  that  governments  are 
instituted  among  men  to  secure  the  enjoyment  of  these 
rights." 


BALLOTS  FOR  PRESIDES!  IN  TOE  CHICAGO  CONVENTION. 

FIRST    BALLOT. 


STATES. 

Seward... 

|  Lincoln.. 

» 

a. 
I 

Cameron. 

B 
| 

1  Me  Loan  . 

X 

o. 

5 

1  Dayton... 

Sumner  .. 

i 
S 

r 

1  Collamer 

Maine  ;  

in 

B 

New  Hampshire  . 

1 

7 

i 

1 

10 

Massachusetts  

?1 

4 

1 

•i 

1 

i 

2 

1 

7 

? 

New  York  

70 

New  Jersey  

M 

Pennsylvania  

114 

4 

47^ 

1 

3 

8 

A 

Virginia  

8 

1-1 

I 

Kentucky  

ft 

(1 

? 

T 

8 

1 

Ohio  

8 

4 

'M 

<>ti 

Missouri  

is 

Michigan  

n 

<>9 

Texas  

4 

2 

Wisconsin  

10 

? 

? 

1 

1 

1 

] 

California  

8 

Minnesota  

8 

Oregon  ... 

e> 

TERRITORIES. 

Kansas  

R 

Nebraska  

2 

] 

1 

«J 

District  of  Columbia..., 

? 

LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

SECOND    BALLOT. 


105 


STATES. 

op 

i 

Lincoln.... 

B 
p 

Cameron.. 

McLean  ... 

Q 

1 

a 
| 

? 

a 

Q 

j* 

b 
S 

Maine    

10 

6 

•  New  Hampshire  

1 

9 

Vermont. 

10 

Massachusetts    

22 

4 

3 

2 

3 

4 

4 

2 

2 

New  York  

70 

New  Jersey  

4 

10 

Pennsylvania  

1% 

48 

1 

2K 

Maryland  

a 

8 

6 

Virginia  

8 

14 

1 

Kentucky  

7 

i) 

6 

Ohio  

14 

3 

29 

26 

18 

12 

Illinois  

22 

Texas  

6 

10 

2 

5 

K 

y. 

California  

8 

Minnesota  

8 

5 

TERRITORIES. 

6 

Nebraska  

3 

1 

2 

District  of  Columbia. 

2 

THIRD    BALLOT. 


• 

a 

o 

g 

jj 

e 

Q 

3 

1 

a 

g, 

K 

STATES. 

2. 

ET 

1 

o 

a 

5" 

Maine  

10 

6 

New  Hampshire  

1 

9 

... 

... 

Vermont  

10 

Massachusetts  

18 

8 

... 

1 

1 

5 

1 

1 

4 

2 

4 

1 

New  York...         

70 

106       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

THIRD    BALLOT. CONTINUED. 


STATES. 

Seward  

a 

o 
1 

Lincoln  .... 

McLean.... 

Dayton  

p 
g 

o 

? 

New  Jersey  

5 

8 

1 

52 

2 

Maryland  

2 

9 

Delaware  

6 

Virginia  

8 

14 

Kentucky  

6 

4 

13 

Ohio  

15 

29 

2 

Indiana  

26 

18 

12 

22 

Texas  

6 

10 

Iowa  

2 

K 

5% 

g 

Minnesota  

g 

Oregon  

1 

4 

TERRITORIES. 

Kansas  

6 

Nebraska  

3 

2 

1 

2 

Total..., 

180 

22 

24  U 

231  U 

5 

1 

1 

IK.  EVARTS,  OF  NEW  YORK,  OS  HIS  MOTION  TO  MAKE  THE  SOMI5ATION  OF 
MR.  LBCOLS  UXAMMOIS. 

MR.  LINCOLN  being  announced  as  nominated  on  the 
third  ballot,  MR.  EVARTS,  Chairman  of  the  New  York 
delegation,  took  the  stand  and  said : 

MR.  PRESIDENT  AND  GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  NATIONAL 
REPUBLICAN  CONVENTION  :  The  State  of  New  York,  by 
a  full  delegation,  with  complete  unanimity  of  purpose 
at  home,  came  to  this  Convention  and  presented  to  its 
choice  one  of  its  citizens,  who  had  served  the  State 
from  boyhood  up,  who  had  labored  for  and  loved  it 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.         107 

We  came  from  a  great  state,  with,  as  we  thought,  a 
great  statesman,  (prolonged  cheers;)  and  our. love  of 
the  great  Republic  for  which  we  are  all  delegates — the 
great  American  Union — and  our  love  of  the  great  Re- 
publican party  of  the  Union,  and  our  love  of  our 
statesman  and  candidate,  made  us  think  that  we  did 
our  duty  to  the  country,  and  the  whole  country,  in 
expressing  our  preference  and  love  for  him.  (Loud 
cheers.)  For,  gentlemen,  it  was  from  Governor  Seward 
that  most  of  us  learned  to  love  Republican  principles 
and  the  Republican  party.  (Renewed  cheers.)  His 
fidelity  to  the  country,  the  Constitution,  and  the  laws, 
his  fidelity  to  the  party  and  the  principle  that  the 
majority  govern,  his  interest  in  the  advancement  of  our 
party  to  its  victory,  that  our  country  may  rise  to  its 
true  glory,  induces  me  to  assume  to  speak  his  senti- 
ments as  I  do  indeed  the  opinions  of  our  delegation, 
when  I  move  you,  as  I  do  now,  that  the  nomination 
of  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  of  Illinois,  as  the  Republican 
candidate  for  the  suffrages  of  the  whole  country  for 
the  office  of  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  American  Union, 
be  made  unanimous.  (Enthusiastic  cheers.) 


MR.  BROWm'G,  OF  ILLDiOIS,  RESPONDS. 

MR.  PRESIDENT  AND  GENTLEMEN  OP  THE  CONVENTION: 
On  behalf  of  the  Illinois  delegation  I  have  been  requested 
to  make  some  proper  response  to  the  speeches  that  we 
have  heard  from  our  friends  of  the  other  states.  Illinois 
ought  hardly  on  this  occasion  to  be  expected  to  make  a 
speech,  or  called  upon  to  do  so.  We  are  so  much  elated 
at  present  that  we  are  scarcely  ia  a  condition  to  collect 


108       LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

our  own  thoughts,  or  to  express  them  intelligently  to 
those  who  may  listen  to  us. 

I  desire  to  say,  gentlemen  of  the  Convention,  that 
in  the  contest  through  which  we  have  just  passed,  we 
have  been  actuated  by  no  feeling  of  hostility  to  the 
illustrious  statesman  from  New  York,  who  was  in  com- 
petition with  our  own  loved  and  gallant  son.  We  were 
actuated  solely  by  a  desire  for  the  certain  advancement 
of  Republicanism.  The  Republicans  of  Illinois,  be- 
lieving the  principles  of  the  Republican  party  are  the 
same  principles  which  embalmed  the  hearts  and  nerved 
the  arms  of  our  patriot  sires  of  the  Revolution  ;  that 
they  are  the  same  principles  which  were  vindicated 
upon  every  battle-field  of  American  freedom,  were  actu- 
ated solely  by  the  conviction  that  the  triumph  of  these 
principles  was  necessary  not  only  to  the  salvation  of  our 
party,  but  to  the  perpetuation  of  the  free  institutions 
whose  blessings  we  now  enjoy ;  and  we  have  struggled 
against  the  nomination  of  the  illustrious  statesman  of 
New  York,  solely  because  we  believed  here  that  we 
could  go  into  battle  on  the  prairies  of  Illinois  with 
more  hope  and  more  prospect  of  success  under  the 
leadership  of  our  own  noble  son.  No  Republican  who 
has  a  love  of  freedom  in  his  heart,  and  who  has  marked 
the  course  of  Governor  Seward  of  New  York,  in  the 
councils  of  our  nation,  who  has  witnessed  the  many 
occasions  upon  which  he  has  risen  to  the  very  hight 
of  moral  sublimity  in  his  conflicts  with  the  enemies  of 
free  institutions;  no  heart  that  has  the  love  of  freedom 
in  it  and  has  witnessed  these  great  conflicts  of  his.  can 
do  otherwise  than  venerate  his  name  on  this  occasion. 
I  desire  to  say  only,  that  the  hearts  of  Illinois  are  to- 
day filled  with  emotions  of  gratification,  for  which  they 
have  no  utterance.  We  are  not  more  overcome  by  the 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        109 

triumph  of  our  noble  Lincoln,  loving  him  as  we  do, 
knowing  the  purity  of  his  past  life,  the  integrity  of  his 
character,  and  devotion  to  the  principles  of  our  party, 
and  the  gallantry  with  which  we  will  be  conducted 
through  this  contest,  than  we  are  by  the  magnanimity  of 
our  friends  of  the  great  and  glorious  State  of  New  York 
in  moving  to  make  this  nomination  unanimous.  On 
behalf  of  the  delegation  from  Illinois,  for  the  Republi- 
can party  of  this  great  and  growing  prairie  State,  I 
return  to  all  our  friends,  New  York  included,  our 
heartfelt  thanks  and  gratitude  for  the  nomination  of 
this  Convention. 


PRESIDENT  ASHMUJTS  VALEDICTORY. 

GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  CONVENTION  :  It  becomes  now 
my  duty  to  put  to  you  the  last  motion  which,  in  the 
order  of  parliamentary  law,  the  President  has  the  power 
to  propose.  It  will  probably  be  the  last  proposition 
which  he  can  ever  make  to  most  of  you  in  any  Con- 
vention. But  before  doing  it,  and  before  making  a 
single  other  remark,  I  beg  to  tender  you  each  and  all 
my  cordial  thanks  for  the  kind  manner  in  which  you 
have  sustained  me  in  the  performance  of  the  duties  of 
this  station.  I  confess  to  you,  when  I  assumed  it,  I  did 
it  with  some  apprehension  that  I  might  not  be  able  to 
come  up  to  the  expectations  which  had  been  formed.  It 
was  a  bold  undertaking,  in  every  respect,  and  I  know 
that  I  could  not  have  accomplished  it  half  so  well  as  I 
have  done,  but  for  the  extreme  generosity  manifested  on 
all  sides  of  the  house.  There  was  a  solemn  purpose 
here  in  the  minds  and  in  the  hearts  of  not  merely  the 
Convention,  but  of  the  vast  assemblage  which  has  sur- 


110       LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

rounded  us,  that  before  we  separated  we  would  accom- 
plish the  high  duty.  That  duty,  gentlemen,  we  have 
accomplished.  Your  sober  judgments,  your  calm  delib- 
erations, after  a  comparison  and  discussion,  free,  frank, 
brotherly,  and  patriotic,  have  arrived  at  a  conclusion  at 
which  the  American  people  will  arrive.  Every  symp- 
tom, every  sign,  every  indication  accompanying  the  Con- 
vention, in  all  its  stages,  are  a  high  assurance  of  success, 
and  I  will  not  doubt,  and  none  of  us  do  doubt,  that  it 
will  be  a  glorious  success. 

Allow  me  to  say  of  the  nominee  that,  although  it  may 
be  of  no  consequence  to  the  American  people  or  to  you, 
they  are  both  personally  known  to  me.  It  was  my  good 
fortune  to  have  served  with  Mr.  Lincoln  in  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States,  and  I  rejoice  in  the  opportunity  to 
say  that  there  was  never  elected  to  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives a  purer,  nor  a  more  intelligent  and  loyal  rep- 
resentative than  Abraham  Lincoln.  (Great  applause.) 
The  contest  through  which  he  passed  during  the  last 
two  years  has  tried  him  as  by  fire;  and  in  that  contest  in 
which  we  are  about  to  go  for  him  now,  I  am  sure  that 
there  is  not  one  man  in  this  country  that  will  be  com- 
pelled to  hang  his  head  for  anything  in  the  life  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln.  You  have  a  candidate  worthy  of  the 
cause ;  you  are  pledged  to  his  success ;  humanity  is 
pledged  to  his  success ;  the  cause  of  free  government  is 
pledged  to  his  success.  The  decree  has  gone  forth  that 
he  shall  succeed.  (Tremendous  applause.) 

I  have  served  also  in  public  life  with  Hannibal  Ham- 
lin.  In  the  House  of  Representatives  we  were  ranged 
on  different  sides.  He  was  a  firm  Democrat  of  the  old 
school,  while  I  was  as  firmly,  and  perhaps  too  much  so, 
a  copy  of  the  Webster  school.  (Applause.)  But,  as  is 
known  to  many  of  the  gentlemen  who  sit  here  before  me 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          Ill 

to-day,  there  was  always  a  sympathetic  chord  between 
him  and  me  upon  the  question  that  has  brought  us  here 
to-day.  (Great  applause.)  And  while  the  old  divisions 
of  party  have  crumbled  away,  and  the  force  of  circum- 
stances have  given  rise  to  new  issues,  it  is  not  strango 
that  we  are  found  battling  together  in  the  common  cause. 
I  say  then,  gentlemen,  that  you  have  got  a  ticket  worthy 
of  the  cause,  and  worthy  of  the  country. 

Now,  gentlemen,  that  we  have  completed  so  well,  so 
thoroughly,  the  great  work  which  the  people  sent  us  here 
to  do,  let  us  adjourn  to  our  several  constituencies  ;  and, 
thanks  be  to  God  who  giveth  the  victory,  we  will  tri- 
umph. (Applause.) 


SPEECHES. 


10 


(113) 


SPEECH 

DELIVERED  AT  CINCINNATI,  OHIO,  SEPTEMBER,  1859. 


[THE  following  speech  is  here  republished,  with  the  insertion 
of  Mr.  Lincoln's  views  upon  labor,  and  the  ability  of  the  laborer 
to  become  an  employer.  These  were  omitted  in  the  first  report, 
and  the  passages  are  supplied  by  the  reporter  for  the  present 
•work.] 

MY  FELLOW-CITIZENS  OF  THE  STATE  OP  OHIO:  This 
is  the  first  time  in  my  life  that  I  have  appeared  before 
an  audience  in  so  great  a  city  as  this.  I  therefore — 
though  I  am  no  longer  a  young  man — make  this  appear- 
ance under  some  degree  of  embarrassment.  But  I  have 
found  that  when  one  is  embarrassed,  usually  the  shortest 
way  to  get  through  with  it  is  to  quit  talking  or  thinking 
about  it,  and  go  at  something  else. 

I  understand  that  you  have  had  recently  with  you  my 
very  distinguished  friend,  Judge  Douglas,  of  Illinois,  and 
I  understand,  without  having  had  an  opportunity  (not 
greatly  sought  to  be  sure)  of  seeing  a  report  of  the  speech 
that  he  made  here,  that  he  did  me  the  honor  to  mention 
my  humble  name.  I  suppose  that  he  did  so  for  the  pur- 
pose of  making  some  objection  to  some  sentiment  at  some 
time  expressed  by  me.  I  should  expect,  it  is  true,  that 
Judge  Douglas  had  reminded  you,  or  informed  you,  if 
you  had  never  before  heard  it,  that  I  had  once  in  my  life 

(115) 


116       LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

declared  it  as  my  opinion  that  this  Government  can  not 
"endure  permanently  half  slave  and  half  free;  that  a 
house  divided  against  itself  can  not  stand,"  and,  as  I 
had  expressed  it,  I  did  not  expect  the  house  to  fall  ; 
that  I  did  not  expect  the  Union  to  be  dissolved;  but 
that  I  did  expect  that  it  would  cease  to  be  divided  ;  that 
it  would  become  all  one  thing  or  all  the  other;  that 
either  the  opposition  of  slavery  would  arrest  the  further 
spread  of  it,  and  place  it  where  the  public  mind  would 
rest  in  the  belief  that  it  was  in  the  course  of  ultimate 
extinction;  or  the  friends  of  slavery  will  push  it  forward 
nntil  it  becomes  alike  lawful  in  all  the  states,  old  or  new, 
free  as  well  as  slave.  I  did,  fifteen  months  ago,  express 
that  opinion,  and  .upon  many  occasions  Judge  Douglas 
has  denounced  it,  and  has  greatly,  intentionally  or  unin- 
tentionally, misrepresented  my  purpose  in  the  expression 
of  that  opinion. 

I  presume,  without  having  seen  a  report  of  his  speech, 
that  he  did  so  here.  I  presume  that  he  alluded  also  to  that 
opinion,  in  different  language,  having  been  expressed  at  a 
subsequent  time  by  Governor  Seward  of  New  York,  and 
that  he  took  the  two  in  a  lump  and  denounced  them  :  that 
he  tried  to  point  out  that  there  was  something  couched  in 
this  opinion  which  led  to  the  making  of  an  entire  uni- 
formity of  the  local  institutions  of  the  various  states  of 
the  Union,  in  utter  disregard  of  the  different  states,  which 
in  their  rature  would  seem  to  require  a  variety  of  insti- 
tutions, and  a  variety  of  laws,  conforming  to  the  differ- 
ences in  the  nature  of  the  different  states. 

Not  only  so;  I  presume  he  insisted  that  this  was  a 
declaration  of  war  between  the  free  and  slave  states — 
that  it  was  the  sounding  to  the  onset  of  continual  war 
between  the  different  states,  the  slave  and  free  states. 

This  charge,  in  this  form,  was  made  by  Judge  Doug- 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.        117 

las  on,  I  believe,  the  9th  of  July,  1858,  in  Chicago,  in 
my  hearing.  On  the  next  evening,  I  made  some  reply 
to  it.  I  informed  him  that  many  of  the  inferences  he 
drew  from  that  expression  of  mine  were  altogether  for- 
eign to  any  purpose  entertained  by  me,  and  in  so  far  as 
he  should  ascribe  these  inferences  to  me,  as  my  purpose, 
he  was  entirely  mistaken  ;  and  in  so  far  as  he  might 
argue  that  whatever  might  be  my  purpose,  actions  con- 
forming to  my  views  would  lead  to  these  results,  he 
might  argue  and  establish  if  he  could ;  but,  so  far  as 
purposes  were  concerned,  he  was  totally  mistaken  as  to 
me. 

When  I  made  that  reply  to  him — when  I  told  him,  on 
the  question  of  declaring  war  between  the  different  states 
of  the  Union,  that  I  had  not  said  that  I  did  not  expect 
any  peace  upon  this  question  until  slavery  was  extermi- 
nated ;  that  I  had  only  said  I  expected  peace  when  that 
institution  was  put  where  the  public  mind  should  rest  in 
the  belief  that  it  was  in  course  of  ultimate  extinction  ; 
that  I  believed  from  the  organization  of  our  Government, 
until  a  very  recent  period  of  time,  the  institution  had 
been  placed  and  continued  upon  such  a  basis  ;  that  we 
had  had  comparative  peace  upon  that  question  through  a 
portion  of  that  period  of  time,  only  because  the  public 
mind  rested  in  that  belief  in  regard  to  it,  and  that  when 
we  returned  to  that  position  in  relation  to  that  matter,  I 
supposed  we  should  again  have  peace  as  we  previously 
had.  I  assured  him,  as  I  now  assure  you,  that  I  neither 
then  had,  nor  have,  or  ever  had,  any  purpose  in  any  way 
of  interfering  with  the  institution  of  slavery,  where  it 
exists.  I  believe  we  have  no  power,  under  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States;  or  rather  under  the  form  of 
Government  under  which  we  live,  to  interfere  with  the 
institution  of  slavery,  or  any  other  of  the  institutions  of 


118        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

our  sister  states,  be  they  free  or  slave  states.  I  declared 
then,  and  I  now  redeclare,  that  I  have  as  little  inclina- 
tion to  interfere  with  the  institution  of  slavery,  where  it 
now  exists,  through  the  instrumentality  of  the  General 
Government,  or  any  other  instrumentality,  as  I  believe 
we  have  no  power  to  do  so. 

I  accidentally  used  this  expression  :  I  had  no  purpose 
of  entering  into  the  slave  states  to  disturb  the  institution 
of  slavery!  So,  upon  the  first  occasion  that  Judge  Doug- 
las got  an  opportunity  to  reply  to  me,  he  passed  by  the 
whole  body  of  what  I  had  said  upon  that  subject,  and 
seized  upon  the  particular  expression  of  mine,  that  I  had 
no  purpose  of  entering  into  the  slave  states  to  disturb 
the  institution  of  slavery.  "  0,  no,"  said  he,  "he  (Lin- 
coln) won't  enter  into  the  slave  states  to  disturb  the 
institution  of  slavery;  he  is  too  prudent  a  man  to  do 
such  a  thing  as  that ;  he  only  means  that  he  will  go  on 
to  the  line  between  the  free  and  slave  states,  and  shoot 
over  at  them.  This  is  all  he  means  to  do.  He  means  to 
do  them  all  the  harm  he  can,  to  disturb  them  all  he 
can,  in  such  a  way  as  to  keep  his  own  hide  in  perfect 
safety." 

Well,  now,  I  did  not  think,  at  that  time,  that  that 
was  either  a  very  dignified  or  very  logical  argument; 
but  so  it  was,  I  had  to  get  along  with  it  as  well  as  I 
could. 

It  has  occurred  to  me  here  to-night,  that  if  I  ever  do 
shoot  over  the  line  at  the  people  on  the  other  side  of  the 
line  into  a  slave  state,  and  purpose  to  do  so,  keeping  my 
skin  safe,  that  I  have  now  about  the  best  chance  I  shall 
ever  have.  I  should  not  wonder  that  there  are  some 
Kentuckians  about  this  audience;  we  are  close  to  Ken- 
tucky ;  and  whether  that  be  so  or  not,  we  are  on  elevated 
ground,  and  by  speaking  distinctly,  I  should  not  wonder 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        119 

01 

if  some  of  the  Kentuckians  would  hear  me  on  the  other 
side  of  the  river.  For  that  reason,  I  propose  to  address 
a  portion  of  what  I  have  to  say  to  the  Kentuckians. 

I  say,  then,  in  the  first  place,  to  the  Kentuckians,  that 
I  am  what  they  call,  as  I  understand  it,  a  "Black  Repub- 
lican." I  think  slavery  is  wrong,  morally  and  politically. 
I  desire  that  it  should  be  no  further  spread  in  these 
United  States,  and  I  should  not  object  if  it  should  grad- 
ually terminate  in  the  whole  Union.  While  I  say  this 
for  myself,  I  say  to  you,  Kentuckians,  that  I  understand 
you  differ  radically  with  me  upon  this  proposition  ;  that 
you  believe  slavery  is  a  good  thing  ;  that  slavery  is 
right ;  that  it  ought  to  be  extended  and  perpetuated  in 
this  Union.  Now,  there  being  this  broad  difference  be- 
tween us.  I  do  not  pretend  in  addressing  myself  to  you, 
Kentuckians,  to  attempt  proselyting  you;  that  would  be 
a  vain  effort.  I  do  not  enter  upon  it.  I  only  propose 
to  try  to  show  you  that  you  ought  to  nominate  for  the 
next  Presidency,  at  Charleston,  my  distinguished  friend, 
Judge  Douglas.  In  all  that  there  is  a  difference  between 
you  and  him,  I  understand  he  is  sincerely  for  you,  and 
more  wisely  for  you  than  you  are  for  yourself.  I  will 
try  to  demonstrate  that  proposition.  Understand  now,  I 
say  that  I  believe  he  is  as  sincerely  for  you,  and  more 
wisely  for  you,  than  you  are  for  yourselves. 

What  do  you  want  more  than  anything  else  to  make 
successful  your  views  of  slavery — to  advance  the  out- 
spread of  it,  and  to  secure  and  perpetuate  the  nationality 
of  it?  What  do  you  want  more  than  anything  else? 
What  is  needed  absolutely  ?  What  is  indispensable  to 
you?  Why  !  if  I  may  be  allowed  to  answer  the  ques- 
tion, it  is  to  retain  a  hold  upon  the  North — it  is  to  retain 
support  and  strength  from  the  free  states.  If  you  can 
get  this  support  and  strength  from  the  free  states  you 


120       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES  OP   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

* 

can  succeed.  If  you  do  not  get  this  support  and  this 
strength  from  the  free  states,  you  are  in  the  minority, 
and  you  are  beaten  at  once. 

If  that  proposition  be  admitted — and  it  is  undeniable 
— then  the  next  thing  I  say  to  you  is,  that  Douglas,  of 
all  the  men  in  this  nation,  is  the  only  man  that  affords 
you  any  hold  upon  the  free  states;  that  no  other  man  can 
give  you  any  strength  in  the  free  states.  This  being  so, 
if  you  doubt  the  other  branch  of  the  proposition,  whether 
he  is  fof  you — whether  he  is  really  for  you,  as  I  have 
expressed  it,  I  propose  asking  your  attention  for  a  while 
to  a  few  facts. 

The  issue  between  you  and  me,  understand,  is,  that  I 
think  slavery  is  wrong,  and  ought  not  to  be  outspread, 
and  you  think  it  is  right  and  ought  to  be  extended  and 
perpetuated.  (A  voice,  "0  Lord.")  That  is  my  Ken- 
tuckian  I  am  talking  to  now. 

I  now  proceed  to  try  to  show  you  that  Douglas  is  sin- 
cerely for  you,  and  more  wisely  for  you,  than  you  are  for 
yourselves. 

In  the  first  place,  we  know  that  in  a  Government  like 
this,  in  a  Government  of  the  people,  where  the  voice  of 
all  the  men  of  that  country,  substantially,  enters  into  the 
execution — or  administration  rather — of  the  Government 
— in  such  a  Government,  what  lies  at  the  bottom  of  all 
of  it,  is  public  opinion.  I  lay  down  the  proposition,  that 
Judge  Douglas  is  not  only  the  man  that  promises  you  in 
advance  a  hold  upon  the  North,  and  support  in  the  North, 
but  that  he  constantly  molds  public  opinion  to  your 
ends;  that  in  every  possible  way  he  can,  he  constantly 
molds  the  public  opinion  of  the  North  to  your  ends; 
and  if  there  are  a  few  things  in  which  he  seems  to  be 
against  you — a  few  things  which  he  says  that  appear  to 
be  against  you,  and  a  few  that  he  forbears  to  say  which 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OP   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.       121 

you  would  like  to  have  him  say — you  ought  to  remember 
that  the  saying  of  the  one,  or  the  forbearing  to  say  the 
other,  would  lose  his  hold  upon  the  North,  and,  by  con- 
sequence, would  lose  his  capacity  to  serve  you. 

Upon  this  subject  of  molding  public  opinion,  I  call 
your  attention  to  the  fact — for  a  well-established  fact  it 
is — that  the  judge  never  says  your  institution  of  slavery 
is  wrong ;  he  never  says  it  is  right,  to  be  sure,  but  he 
never  says  it  is  wrong.  There  is  not  a  public  man  in  the 
United  States,  I  believe,  with  the  exception  of  Senator 
Douglas,  who  has  not,  at  some  time  in  his  life,  declared 
his  opinion  whether  the  thing  is  right  or  wrong;  but 
Senator  Douglas  never  declares  it  is  wrong.  He  leaves 
himself  at  perfect  liberty  to  do  all  in  your  favor  which 
he  would  be  hindered  from  doing  if  he  were  to  declare 
the  thing  to  be  wrong.  On  the  contrary,  he  takes  all  the 
chances  that  he  has  for  inveigling  the  sentiment  of  the 
North,  opposed  to  slavery,  into  your  support,  by  never 
paying  it  is  right.  This  you  ought  to  set  down  to  his 
credit.  You  ought  to  give  him  full  credit  for  this  much, 
little  though  it  be,  in  comparison  to  the  whole  which  he 
does  for  you. 

Some  other  things  I  will  ask  your  attention  to.  He 
said  upon  the  floor  of  the  United  States  Senate,  and  he 
has  repeated  -it,  as  I  understand,  a  great  many  times, 
that  he  does  not  care  whether  slavery  is  "  voted  up  or 
voted  down."  This  again  shows  you,  or  ought  to  show 
you,  it'  you  would  reason  upon  it,  that  he  does  not  be- 
lieve it  to  be  wrong;  for  a  man  may  say,  when  he  sees 
nothing  wrong  in  a  thing,  that  he  does  not  care  whether 
it  be  voted  up  or  voted  down  ;  but  no  man  can  logically 
say  that  he  cares  not  whether  a  thing  goes  up  or  goes 
down,  which  to  him  appears  to  be  wrong.  You  therefore 
have  a  demonstration,  in  this,  that  to  Judge  Douglas's 
11 


122       LIFB   AND   SPEECHES   OF  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

mind,  your  favorite  institution,  which  you  would  have 
spread  out,  and  made  perpetual,  is  no  wrong. 

Another  thing  he  tells  you,  in  a  speech  made  at  Mem- 
phis, in  Tennessee,  shortly  after  the  canvass  in  Illinois, 
last  year.  He  there  distinctly  told  the  people  that  there 
was  a  "  line  drawn  by  the  Almighty  across  this  continent, 
on  the  one  side  of  which  the  soil  must  always  be  culti- 
vated by  slaves;"  that  he  did  not  pretend  to  know  ex- 
actly where  that  line  was,  but  that  there  was  such  a  line. 
I  want  to  ask  your  attention  to  that  proposition  again  : 
that  there  is  one  portion  of  this  continent  where  the  Al- 
mighty has  designed  the  soil  shall  always  be  cultivated 
by  slaves;  that  its  being  cultivated  by  slaves  at  that  place 
is  right;  that  it  has  the  direct  sympathy  and  authority 
of  the  Almighty.  Whenever  you  can  get  these  Northern 
audiences  to  adopt  the  opinion  that  slavery  is  right  on 
the  other  side  of  the  Ohio ;  whenever  you  can  get  them, 
in  pursuance  of  Douglas's  views,  to  adopt  that  sentiment, 
they  will  very  readily  make  the  other  argument,  which 
is  perfectly  logical,  that  that  which  is  right  on  that  side 
of  the  Ohio,  can  not  be  wrong  on  this  ;  and  that  if  you 
have  that  property  on  that  side  of  the  Ohio,  under  the 
seal  and  stamp  of  the  Almighty,  when  by  any  means  it 
escapes  over  here,  it  is  wrong  to  have  Constitutions  and 
laws  "to  devil"  you  about  it.  So  Douglas  is  molding 
the  public  opinion  of  the  North,  first  to  say  that  the 
thing  is  right  in  your  state  over  the  Ohio  river,  and 
hence  to  say  that  that  which  is  right  there  is  not  wrong 
here,  and  that  all  laws  and  Constitutions  here,  recogniz- 
ing it  as  being  wrong,  are  themselves  wrong,  and  ought 
to  be  repealed  and  abrogated.  He  will  tell  you,  men  of 
Ohio,  that  if  you  choose  here  to  have  laws  against  slav- 
ery, it  is  in  conformity  to  the  idea  that  your  climate  is 
not  suited  to  it;  that  your  climate  is  not  suited  to  slave 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        123 

labor,  and  therefore  you  have  Constitutions  and  laws 
against  it. 

Let  us  attend  to  that  argument  for  a  little  while,  and 
see  if  it  he  sound.  You  do  not  raise  sugar-cane,  (except 
the  new-fashioned  sugar-cane,  and  you  won't  raise  that 
long,)  but  they  do  raise  it  in  Louisiana.  You  don't 
raise  it  in  Ohio  because  you  can't  raise  it  profitably,  be- 
cause the  climate  don't  suit  it.  They  do  raise  it  in  Lou- 
isiana because  there  it  is  profitable.  Now,  Douglas  will 
tell  you  that  is  precisely  the  slavery  question.  That 
they  do  have  slaves  there  because  they  are  profitable,  and 
you  don't  have  them  here  because  they  are  not  profitable. 
If  that  is  so,  then  it  leads  to  dealing  with  the  one  pre- 
cisely as  with  the  other.  Is  there  anything  in  the  Con- 
stitution or  laws  of  Ohio  against  raising  sugar-cane? 
Have  you  found  it  necessary  to  put  any  such  provision 
in  your  law?  Surely  not!  No  man  desires  to  raise 
sugar-cane  in  Ohio ;  but,  if  any  man  did  desire  to  do  so, 
you  would  say  it  was  a  tyrannical  law  that  forbids  his 
doing  so;  and  whenever  you  shall  agree  with  Douglas, 
whenever  your  minds  are  brought  to  adopt  his  argument, 
as  surely  you  will  have  reached  the  conclusion,  that  al- 
though slavery  is  not  profitable  in  Ohio,  if  any  man 
wants  it,  it  is  wrong  to  him  not  to  let  him  have  it. 

In  this  matter  Judge  Douglas  is  preparing  the  public 
mind  for  you  of  Kentucky,  to  make  perpetual  that  good 
thing  in  your  estimation,  about  which  you  and  I  differ. 

In  this  connection  let  me  ask  your  attention  to  another 
thing.  I  believe  it  is  safe  to  assert  that,  five  years  ago, 
no  living  man  had  expressed  the  opinion  that  the  negro 
had  no  share  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  Let 
me  state  that  again  :  five  years  ago  no  living  man  had 
expressed  the  opinion  that  the  negro  had  no  share  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  If  there  is  in  this  large 


124       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OP   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

audience  any  man  who  ever  knew  of  that  opinion  being 
put  upon  paper  as  much  as  five  years  ago,  I  will  be 
obliged  to  him  now  or  at  a  subsequent  time  to  show  it. 

If  that  be  true  I  wish  you  then  to  note  the  next  fact; 
that  within  the  space  of  five  years  Senator  Douglas,  in 
the  argument  of  this  question,  has  got  his  entire  party, 
so  far  as  I  know,  without  exception,  to  join  in  saying 
that  the  negro  has  no  share  in  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence. If  there  be  now,  in  all  these  United  States, 
one  Douglas  man  that  does  not  say  this,  I  have  been  un- 
able upon  any  occasion  to  scare  him  up.  Now,  if  none 
of  you  said  this  five  years  ago,  and  all  of  you  say  it  now, 
that  is  a  matter  that  you  Kentuckians  ought  to  note. 
That  is  a  vast  change  in  the  Northern  public  sentiment 
upon  that  question. 

Of  what  tendency  is  that  change  ?  The  tendency  of 
that  change  is  to  bring  the  public  mind  to  the  conclusion 
that  when  men  are  spoken  of,  the  negro  is  not  meant; 
that  when  negroes  are  spoken  of,  brutes  alone  are  con- 
templated. That  change  in  public  sentiment  has  already 
degraded  the  black  man  in  the  estimation  of  Douglas 
and  his  followers  from  the  condition  of  a  man  of  some 
sort,  and  assigned  him  to  the  condition  of  a  brute.  Now, 
you  Kentuckians  ought  to  give  Douglas  credit  for  this. 
That  is  the  largest  possible  stride  that  can  be  made  in 
regard  to  the  perpetuation  of  your  thing  of  slavery. 

A  voice — "  Speak  to  Ohio  men,  and  not  to  Kentuck- 
ians!" 

Mr.  Lincoln — I  beg  permission  to  speak  as  I  please. 

In  Kentucky  perhaps,  in  many  of  the  slave  states  cer- 
tainly, you  are  trying  to  establish  the  rightfulness  of 
slavery  by  reference  to  the  Bible.  You  are  trying  to 
show  that  slavery  existed  in  the  Bible  times  by  Divine 
ordinance.  Now,  Douglas  is  wiser  than  you,  for  your 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.       125 

own  benefit,  upon  that  subject.  Douglas  knows  that 
whenever  you  establish  that  slavery  was  right  by  the 
Bible,  it  will  occur  that  that  slavery  was  the  slavery  of 
the  white  man — of  men  without  reference  to  color — and 
he  knows  very  well  that  you  may  entertain  that  idea  in 
Kentucky  as  much  as  you  please,  but  you  will  never  win 
any  Northern  support  upon  it.  He  makes  a  wiser  argu- 
ment for  you  ;  he  makes  the  argument  that  the  slavery  of 
the  black  man,  the  slavery  of  the  man  who  has  a  skin  of 
a  different  color  from  your  own,  is  right.  He  thereby 
brings  to  your  support  Northern  voters  who  could  not 
for  a  moment  be  brought  by  your  own  argument  of  the 
Bible-right  of  slavery.  Will  you  not  give  him  credit 
for  that?  Will  you  not  say  that  in  this  matter  he  is 
more  wisely  for  you  than  you  are  for  yourselves? 

Now,  having  established  with  his  entire  party  this 
doctrine,  having  been  entirely  successful  in  that  branch 
of  his  efforts  in  your  behalf,  he  is  ready  for  another. 

At  this  same  meeting  at  Memphis,  he  declared  that, 
while  in  all  contests  between  the  negro  and  the  white 
man,  he  was  for  the  white  man,  but  that  in  all  questions 
between  the  negro  and  the  crocodile  he  was  for  the  negro. 
He  did  not  make  that  declaration  accidentally  at  Mem- 
phis. He  made  it  a  great  many  times  in  the  canvass  in 
Illinois  last  year,  (though  I  don't  know  that  it  was  re- 
ported in  any  of  his  speeches  there,)  but  he  frequently 
made  it.  I  believe  he  repeated  it  at  Columbus,  and  I 
should  not  wonder  if  he  repeated  it  here.  It  is,  then,  a 
deliberate  way  of  expressing  himself  upon  that  subject. 
It  is  a  matter  of  mature  deliberation  with  him  thus  to 
express  himself  upon  that  point  of  his  case,  It  there- 
fore requires  some  deliberate  attention. 

The  first  inference  seems  to  be  that  if  you  do  not 
enslave  the  negro  you  are  wronging  the  white  man  in 


126        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

some  way  or  other;  and  that  whoever  is  opposed  to  the 
negro  being  enslaved,  is,  in  some  way  or  other,  against 
the  white  man.  Is  not  that  a  falsehood?  If  there  was 
a  necessary  conflict  between  the  white  man  and  the 
negro,  I  should  be  for  the  white  man  as  much  as  Judge 
Douglas ;  but  I  say  there  is  no  such  necessary  conflict. 
I  say  that  there  is  room  enough  for  us  all  to  be  free,  and 
that  it  not  only  does  not  wrong  the  white  man  that  the 
negro  should  be  free,  but  it  positively  wrongs  the  mass 
of  the  white  men  that  the  negro  should  be  enslaved  ; 
that  the  mass  of  white  men  are  really  injured  by  tho 
effects  of  slave  labor  in  the  vicinity  of  the  fields  of  their 
own  labor. 

But  I  do  not  desire  to  dwell  upon  this  branch  of  the 
question  more  than  to  say  that  this  assumption  of  his  is 
false,  and  I  do  hope  that  the  fallacy  will  not  long  pre- 
vail in  the  minds  of  intelligent  white  men.  At  all 
events,  you  ought  to  thank  Judge  Douglas  for  it.  It  is 
for  your  benefit  it  is  made. 

The  other  branch  of  it  is,  that  in  a  struggle  between 
the  negro  and  the  crocodile,  he  is  for  the  negro.  Well, 
I  do  n't  know  that  there  is  any  struggle  between  tho 
negro  and  the  crocodile  either.  I  suppose  that  if  a 
crocodile  (or,  as  we  old  Ohio  river  boatmen  used  to  call 
them,  alligators)  should  come  across  a  white  man,  he 
would  kill  him  if  he  could,  and  so  he  would  a  negro. 
But  what,  at  last,  is  this  proposition  ?  I  believe  that  it 
is  a  sort  of  proposition  in  proportion,  which  may  be 
stated  thus:  "As  the  negro  is  to  the  white  man,  so  is 
the  crocodile  to  the  negro;  and  as  the  negro  may  right- 
fully treat  the  crocodile  as  a  beast  or  reptile,  so  the  white 
man  may  rightfully  treat  the  negro  as  a  beast  or  reptile." 
That  is  really  the  "  knip  "  of  all  that  argument  of  his. 

Now,  my  brother  Kentuckians,  who  believe  in  this, 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        127 

you  ought  to  thank  Judge  Douglas  for  having  put  that 
in  a  much  more  taking  way  than  any  of  yourselves  have 
done. 

Again,  Douglas's  great  principle,  "Popular  Sovereign- 
ty," as  he  calls  it,  gives  you,  by  natural  consequence, 
the  revival  of  the  slave-trade  whenever  you  want  it.  If 
you  question  this,  listen  a  while,  consider  a  while,  what  I 
shall  advance  in  support  of  that  proposition. 

He  says  that  it  is  the  sacred  right  of  the  man  who 
goes  into  the  territories,  to  have  slavery  if  he  wants  it. 
Grant  that  for  argument's  sake.  Is  it  not  the  sacred 
right  of  the  man  who  don't  go  there  equally  to  buy 
slaves  in  Africa,  if  he  wants  them  ?  Can  you  point  out 
the  difference?  The  man  who  goes  into  the  Territories 
of  Kansas  and  Nebraska,  or  any  other  new  territory, 
with  the  sacred  right  of  taking  a  slave  there  which 
belongs  to  him,  would  certainly  have  no  more  right  to 
take  one  there  than  I  would,  who  own  no  slave,  but  who 
would  desire  to  buy  one  and  take  him  there.  You  will 
not  say — you,  the  friends  of  Judge  Douglas — but  that 
the  man  who  does  not  own  a  slave,  has  an  equal  right 
to  buy  one  and  take  him  to  the  territory,  as  the  other 
does? 

A  VOICE — "I  want  to  ask  a  question.  Don't  foreign 
nations  interfere  with  the  slave-trade?" 

MR.  LINCOLN — Well!  I  understand  it  to  be  a  principle 
of  Democracy  to  whip  foreign  nations  whenever  they 
interfere  with  us. 

VOICE — "  I  only  ask  for  information.  I  am  a  Repub- 
lican myself." 

MR.  LINCOLN — You  and  I  will  be  on  the  best  terms  in 
the  world,  but  I  do  not  wish  to  be  diverted  from  the 
point  I  was  trying  to  press. 

I  say  that  Douglas's  Popular  Sovereignty,  establishing 


123       LITE   AND   SPEECHES   OP   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

his  sacred  right  in  the  people,  if  you  please,  if  carried  to 
its  logical  conclusion,  gives  equally  the  sacred  right  to 
the  people  of  the  states  or  the  territories  themselves  to 
buy  slaves,  wherever  they  can  buy  them  cheapest;  and 
if  any  man  can  show  a  distinction,  I  should  like  to  hear 
him  try  it.  If  any  man  can  show  how  the  people  of 
Kansas  have  a  better  right  to  slaves  because  they  want 
them,  than  the  people  of  Georgia  have  to  buy  them  in 
Africa,  I  want  him  to  do  it.  I  think  it  can  not  be  done. 
If  it  is  "  Popular  Sovereignty  ''  for  the  people  to  have 
slaves  because  they  want  them,  it  is  "  Popular  Sovereign- 
ty" for  them  to  buy  them  in  Africa,  because  they  desire 
to  do  so. 

I  know  that  Douglas  has  recently  made  a  little  effort — 
not  seeming  to  notice  that  he  had  a  different  theory — has 
made  an  effort  to  get  rid  of  that.  He  has  written  a  let- 
ter, addressed  to  somebody,  I  believe,  who  resides  in 
Iowa,  declaring  his  opposition  to  the  repeal  of  the  laws 
that  prohibit  the  African  slave-trade.  He  bases  his  op- 
position to  such  repeal,  upon  the  ground  that  these  laws 
are  themselves  one  of  the  compromises  of  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States.  Now  it  would  be  very  inter- 
esting to  see  Judge  Douglas,  or  any  of  his  friends,  turn 
'to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  point  out 
that  compromise,  to  show  where  there  is  any  compromise 
in  the  Constitution,  or  provision  in  the  Constitution,  ex- 
press or  implied,  by  which  the  administrators  of  that 
Constitution  are  under  any  obligation  to  repeal  the 
African  slave-trade.  I  know,  or  at  least  I  think  I  know, 
that  the  framers  of  that  Constitution  did  expect  that  the 
African  slave-trade  would  be  abolished  at  the  end  of 
twenty  years,  to  which  time  their  prohibition  against  its 
being  abolished  extended.  I  think  there  is  abundant 
cotemporaneous  history  to  show  that  the  framers  of  the 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.         129 

Constitution  expected  it  to  be  abolished.  But  while 
they  so  expected,  they  gave  nothing  for  that  expectation, 
and  they  put  no  provision  in  the  Constitution  requiring 
it  should  be  so  abolished.  The  migration  or  importation 
of  such  persons  as  the  states  shall  see  fit  to  admit,  shall 
not  be  prohibited,  but  a  certain  tax  might  be  levied 
upon  such  importation.  But  what  was  to  be  done  after 
that  time?  The  Constitution  is  as  silent  about  that,  as 
it  is  silent,  personally,  about  myself.  There  is  absolute- 
ly nothing  in  it  about  that  subject;  there  is  only  the 
expectation  of  the  framers  of  the  Constitution  thlft  the 
slave-trade  would  be  abolished  at  the  end  of  that  time, 
and  they  expected  it  would  be  abolished,  owing  to  pub- 
lic sentiment,  before  that  time,  and  they  put  that  provi- 
sion in,  in  order  that  it  should  not  be  abolished  before 
that  time,  for  reasons  which  I  suppose  they  thought  to 
be  sound  ones,  but  which  I  will  not  now  try  to  enumerate 
before  you. 

But  while  they  expected  the  slave-trade  would  be 
abolished  at  that  time,  they  expected  that  the  spread  of 
slavery  into  the  new  territories  should  also  be  restricted. 
It  is  as  easy  to  prove  that  the  framers  of  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States  expected  that  slavery  should 
be  prohibited  from  extending  into  the  new  territories,  as 
it  is  to  prove  that  it  was  expected  that  the  slave-trade 
should  be  abolished.  Both  these  things  were  expected. 
One  was  no  more  expected  than  the  other,  and  one  was 
no  more  a  compromise  of  the  Constitution  than  the  other. 
There  was  nothing  said  in  the  Constitution  in  regard  to 
the  spread  of  slavery  into  the  territory.  I  grant  that, 
but  there  was  something  very  important  said  about  it  by 
the  same  generation  of  men  in  the  adoption  of  the  old 
ordinance  of  '87,  through  the  influence  of  which,  you 
here  in  Ohio,  our  neighbors  in  Indiana,  we  in  Illinois, 


130        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

our  neighbors  in  Michigan  and  Wisconsin  are  happy, 
prosperous,  teeming  millions  of  free  men.  That  genera- 
tion of  men,  though  not  to  the  full  extent  members  of 
the  Convention  that  framed  the  Constitution,  were  to 
some  extent  members  of  that  Convention,  holding  seats 
at  the  same  time  in  one  body  and  the  other,  so  that  if 
there  was  any  compromise  on  either  of  these  subjects, 
the  strong  evidence  is,  that  that  compromise  was  in  favor 
of  the  restriction  of  slavery  from  the  new  territories. 

But  Douglas  says  that  he  is  unalterably  opposed  to  the 
repeal  of  those  laws ;  because,  in  his  view,  it  is  a  compro- 
mise of  the  Constitution.  You  Kentuckians,  no  doubt, 
are  somewhat  offended  with  that !  You  ought  not  to  be ! 
You  ought  to  be  patient !  You  ought  to  know  that  if  he 
said  less  than  that,  he  would  lose  the  power  of  "  lugging  " 
the  Northern  States  to  your  support.  Really,  what  you 
would  push  him  to  do  would  take  from  him  his  entire 
power  to  serve  you.  And  you  ought  to  remember  how 
long,  by  precedent,  Judge  Douglas  holds  himself  obliged 
to  stick  by  compromises.  You  ought  to  remember  that 
by  the  time  you  yourselves  think  you  are  ready  to  inau- 
gurate measures  for  the  revival  of  the  African  slave-trade, 
that  sufficient  time  will  have  arrived,  by  precedent,  for 
Judge  Douglas  to  break  through  that  compromise.  He 
says  now  nothing  more  strong  than  he  said  in  1849,  when 
he  declared  in  favor  of  the  Missouri  Compromise — that 
precisely  four  years  and  a  quarter  after  he  declared  that 
compromise  to  be  a  sacred  thing,  which  "no  ruthless  hand 
would  ever  dare  to  touch,"  he,  himself,  brought  forward 
the  measure,  ruthlessly  to  destroy  it.  By  a  mere  calcula- 
tion of  time,  it  will  only  be  four  years  more  until  he  is 
ready  to  take  back  his  profession  about  the  sacredness  of 
the  Compromise  abolishing  the  slave-trade.  Precisely  as 
soon  as  you  are  ready  to  have  his  services  in  that  direc- 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        131 

tion,  by  fair  calculation,  you  may  be  sure  of  having 
them. 

But  you  remember  and  set  down  to  Judge  Douglas's 
debt,  or  discredit,  that  he,  last  year,  said  the  people  of 
territories  can,  in  spite  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  exclude 
your  slaves  from  those  territories ;  that  he  declared  by 
"  unfriendly  legislation,"  the  extension  of  your  property 
into  the  new  territories  may  be  cut  off  in  the  teeth  of  the 
decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 

He  assumed  that  position  at  Freeport,  on  the  27th  of 
August,  1858.  He  said  that  the  people  of  the  territories 
can  exclude  slavery,  in  so  many  words.  You  ought,  how- 
ever, to  bear  in  mind  that  he  has  never  said  it  since.  You 
may  hunt  in  every  speech  that  he  has  since  made,  and  he 
has  never  used  that  expression  once.  He  has  never  seemed 
to  notice  that  he  is  stating  his  views  differently  from  what 
he  did  then ;  but,  by  some  sort  of  accident,  he  has  always 
really  stated  it  differently.  He  has  always,  since  then, 
declared  that  "  the  Constitution  does  not  carry  slavery 
into  the  territories  of  the  United  States,  beyond  the  power 
of  the  people  legally  to  control  it,  as  other  property." 
Now,  there  is  a  difference  in  the  language  used  upon  that 
former  occasion  and  in  this  latter  day.  There  may  or 
may  not  be  a  difference  in  the  meaning,  but  it  is  worth 
while  considering  whether  there  is  not  also  a  difference 
in  meaning. 

What  is  it  to  exclude  ?  Why,  it  is  to  drive  it  out ;  it 
is  in  some  way  to  put  it  out  of  the  territory ;  it  is  to  force 
it  across  the  line,  or  change  its  character,  so  that  as  prop- 
erty it  is  out  of  existence.  But  what  is  the  controlling 
of  it  "as  other  property?"  Is  controlling  it  as  other 
property  the  same  thing  as  destroying  it,  or  driving  it 
away  ?  I  should  think  not.  I  should  think  the  controll- 
ing of  it  as  other  property  would  be  just  about  what  you 


132       LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

in  Kentucky  should  want.  I  understand  the  controlling  of 
property  means  the  controlling  of  it  for  the  benefit  of  the 
owner  of  it.  While  I  have  no  doubt  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States  would  say  "  God  speed  "  to  any  of 
the  territorial  Legislatures  that  should  thus  control  slave 
property,  they  would  sing  quite  a  different  tune,  if  by  the 
pretense  of  controlling  it  they  were  to  undertake  to  pass 
laws  which  virtually  excluded  it,  and  that  upon  a  very  well 
known  principle  to  all  lawyers,  that  what  a  Legislature  can 
not  directly  do,  it  can  not  do  by  indirection ;  that  as  the 
Legislature  has  not  the  power  to  drive  slaves  out,  they 
have  no  power  by  indirection,  by  tax,  or  by  imposing  bur- 
dens in  any  way  on  that  property,  to  effect  the  same  end, 
and  that  any  attempt  to  do  so  would  be  held  by  the  Dred 
Scott  court  unconstitutional. 

Douglas  is  not  willing  to  stand  by  his  first  proposition 
that  they  can  exclude  it,  because  we  have  seen  that  that 
proposition  amounts  to  nothing  more  nor  less  than  the 
naked  absurdity,  that  you  may  lawfully  drive  out  that 
which  has  a  lawful  right  to  remain.  He  admitted  at  first 
that  the  slave  might  be  lawfully  taken  into  the  territo- 
ries under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  yet 
asserted  that  he  might  be  lawfully  driven  out.  That  being 
the  proposition,  it  is  the  absurdity  I  have  stated.  He  is 
not  willing  to  stand  in  the  face  of  that  direct,  naked,  and 
impudent  absurdity ;  he  has,  therefore,  modified  h«r  lan- 
guage into  that  of  being  "  controlled  as  other  property." 

The  Kentuckians  do  n't  like  this  in  Douglas !  I  will 
tell  you  where  it  will  go.  He  now  swears  by  the  court. 
He  was  once  a  leading  man  in  Illinois  to  break  down  a 
court,  because  it  had  made  a  decision  he  did  not  like. 
But  he  now  not  only  swears  by  the  court,  the  courts  having 
got  to  working  for  you,  but  he  denounces  all  men  that  do 
not  swear  by  the  courts,  as  unpatriotic,  as  bad  citizens. 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.       133 

When  one  of  these  acts  of  unfriendly  legislation  shall 
impose  such  heavy  burdens  as  to,  in  effect,  destroy  prop- 
erty in  slaves  in  a  territory,  and  show  plainly  enough 
that  there  can  be  no  mistake  in  the  purpose  of  the  Legis- 
lature to  make  them  so  burdensome,  this  same  Supreme 
Court  will  decide  that  law  to  be  unconstitutional,  and  he 
will  be  ready  to  say  for  your  benefit,  "  I  swear  by  the 
court ;  I  give  it  up ;"  and  while  that  is  going  on,  he  has 
been  getting  all  his  men  to  swear  by  the  courts,  and  to 
give  it  up  with  him.  In  this  again  he  serves  you  faith- 
fully, and,  as  I  say,  more  wisely  than  you  serve  yourselves. 

Again :  I  have  alluded  in  the  beginning  of  these  re- 
marks to  the  fact,  that  Judge  Douglas  has  made  great 
complaint  of  my  having  expressed  the  opinion  that  this 
Government  "  can  not  endure  permanently  half  slave  and 
half  free."  He  has  complained  of  Seward  for  using  dif- 
ferent language,  and  declaring  that  there  is  an  "  irrepress- 
ible conflict "  between  the  principles  of  free  and  slave 
labor.  [A  VOICE — "  He  says  it  is  not  original  with  Sew- 
ard. That  is  original  with  Lincoln."]  1  will  attend  to 
that  immediately,  sir.  Since  that  time,  Hickman,  of 
Pennsylvania,  expressed  the  same  sentiment.  He  has 
never  denounced  Mr.  Hickman.  Why?  There  is  a  little 
chance,  notwithstanding  that  opinion  in  the  mouth  of 
Hickman,  that  he  may  yet  be  a  Douglas  man.  That  is 
the  difference !  It  is  not  unpatriotic  to  hold  that  opinion 
if  a  man  is  a  Douglas  man. 

But  neither  I,  nor  Seward,  nor  Hickman,  is  entitled  to 
the  enviable  or  unenviable  distinction  of  having  first  ex- 
pressed that  idea.  That  same  idea  was  expressed  by  the 
Richmond  Enquirer,  in  Virginia,  in  1856  ;  quite  two  years 
before  it  was  expressed  by  the  first  of  us.  And  while 
Douglas  was  pluming  himself,  that  in  his  conflict  with 
my  humble  self,  last  year,  he  had  "  squelched  out "  that 


134       LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

fatal  heresy,  as  he  delighted  to  call  it,  and  had  suggested 
that  if  he  only  had  had  a  chance  to  be  in  New  York  and 
meet  Seward,  he  would  have  "  squelched  "  it  there  also, 
it  never  occurred  to  him  to  breathe  a  word  against  Pryor. 
I  do  n't  think  that  you  can  discover  that  Douglas  ever 
talked  of  going  to  Virginia  to  "squelch"  out  that  idea 
there.  No.  More  than  that :  that  same  Roger  A.  Pryor 
was  brought  to  Washington  City  and  made  the  editor  of 
the  par  excellence  Douglas  paper,  after  making  use  of  that 
expression,  which,  in  us,  is  so  unpatriotic  and  heretical. 
From  all  this,  my  Kentucky  friends  may  see  that  this 
opinion  is  heretical  in  his  view  only  when  it  is  expressed 
by  men  suspected  of  a  desire  that  the  country  shall  all 
become  free,  and  not  when  expressed  by  those  fairly 
known  to  entertain  the  desire  that  the  whole  country  shall 
become  slave.  When  expressed  by  that  class  of  men,  it 
is  in  nowise  offensive  to  him.  In  this  again,  my  friends 
of  Kentucky,  you  have  Judge  Douglas  with  you. 

There  is  another  reason  why  you  Southern  people  ought 
to  nominate  Douglas  at  your  Convention  at  Charleston. 
That  reason  is  the  wonderful  capacity  of  the  man ;  the 
power  he  has  of  doing  what  would  seem  to  be  impossible. 
Let  me  call  your  attention  to  one  of  these  apparently  im- 
possible things. 

Douglas  had  three  or  four  very  distinguished  men  of 
the  most  extreme  antislavery  views  of  any  men  in  the 
Republican  party,  expressing  their  desire  for  his  re-elec- 
tion to  the  Senate  last  year.  That  would,  of  itself,  have 
seemed  to  be  a  little  wonderful,  but  that  wonder  is  hi<*ht- 

O 

ened  when  we  see  that  Wise,  of  Virginia,  a  man  exactly 
opposed  to  them,  a  man  who  believes  in  the  Divine  right 
of  slavery,  was  also  expressing  his  desire  that  Douglas 
should  be  re-elected  ;  that  another  man  that  may  be  said 
to  be  kindred  to  Wise,  Mr.  Breckinridge,  the  Vice-Pres- 


LIPE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        135 

ident,  and  of  your  own  state,  was  also  agreeing  with  the 
antislavery  men  in  the  North,  that  Douglas  ought  to  be 
re-elected.  Still  to  heighten  the  wonder,  a  Senator  from 
Kentucky,  whom  I  have  always  loved  with  an  affection  as 
tender  and  endearing  as  I  have  ever  loved  any  man  ;  who 
was  opposed  to  the  antislavery  men  for  reasons  which 
seemed  sufficient  to  him,  and  equally  opposed  to  Wise 
and  Breckinridge,  was  writing  letters  into  Illinois  to  se- 
cure the  re-election  of  Douglas. 

Now  that  all  these  conflicting  elements  should  be 
brought,  while  at  dagger's  points,  with  one  another,  to 
support  him,  is  a  feat  that  is  worthy  for  you  to  note  and 
consider.  It  is  quite  probable  that  each  of  these  classes 
of  men  thought,  by  the  re-election  of  Douglas,  their 
peculiar  views  would  gain  something;  it  is  probable  that 
the  antislavery  men  thought  their  views  would  gain 
something;  that  Wise  and  Breckinridge  thought  so  too, 
as  regards  their  opinions  ;  that  Mr.  Crittenden  thought 
that  his  views  would  gain  something,  although  he  was 
opposed  to  both  these  other  men.  It  is  probable  that 
each  and  all  of  them  thought  that  they  were  using  Doug- 
las, and  it  is  yet  an  unsolved  problem  whether  he  was 
not  using  them  all.  If  he  was,  then  it  is  for  you  to 
consider  whether  that  power  to  perform  wonders,  is  one 
for  you  lightly  to  throw  away. 

There  is  one  other  thing  that  I  will  say  to  you  in  this 
relation.  It  is  but  my  opinion,  I  give  it  to  you  without 
a  fee.  It  is  my  opinion  that  it  is  for  you  to  take  him  or 
be  defeated ;  and  that  if  you  do  take  him  you  may  be 
beaten.  You  will  surely  be  beaten  if  you  do  not  take 
him.  We,  the  Republicans  and  others  forming  the  op- 
position of  the  country,  intend  to  "stand  by  our  guns," 
to  be  patient  and  firm,  and  in  the  long  run  to  beat  you 
•whether  you  take  him  or  not.  We  know  that  before  we 


136       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES  OP   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

fairly  beat  you,  we  have  to  beat  you  both  together.  We 
know  that  you  are  "all  of  a  feather,"  and  that  we  have 
to  beat  you  altogether,  and  we  expect  to  do  it.  We 
don't  intend  to  be  very  impatient  about  it.  We  mean 
to  be  as  deliberate  and  calm  about  it  as  it  is  possible  to 
be,  but  as  firm  and  resolved  as  it  is  possible  for  men  to 
be.  When  we  do  as  we  say,  beat  you,  you  perhaps  want 
to  know  what  we  will  do  with  you. 

I  will  tell  you,  so  far  as  I  am  authorized  to  speak  for 
the  opposition,  what  we  mean  to  do  with  you.  We  mean 
to  treat  you,  as  near  as  we  possibly  can,  as  Washington, 
Jefferson,  and  Madison  treated  you.  We  mean  to  leave 
you  alone,  and  in  no  way  to  interfere  with  your  institu- 
tion ;  to  abide  by  all  and  every  compromise  of  the  Con- 
stitution, and,  in  a  word,  coming  back  to  the  original 
proposition,  to  treat  you,  so  far  as  degenerated  men  (if 
we  have  degenerated)  may,  according  to  the  examples  of 
those  noble  fathers — Washington,  Jefferson,  and  Madi- 
son. 

We  mean  to  remember  that  you  are  as  good  as  we  ; 
that  there  is  no  difference  between  us  other  than  the 
difference  of  circumstances.  We  mean  to  recognize  and 
bear  in  mind  always  that  you  have  as  good  hearts  in 
your  bosoms  as  other  people,  or  as  "we  claim  to  have, 
and  treat  you  accordingly.  We  mean  to  marry  your 
girls  when  we  have  a  chance — the  white  ones  I  mean  ; 
and  I  have  the  honor  to  inform  you  that  I  once  did 
have  a  chance  in  that  way. 

I  have  told  you  what  we  mean  to  do.  I  want  to  know 
now,  when  that  thing  takes  place,  what  do  you  mean  to 
do?  I  often  hear  it  intimated  that  you  mean  to  divide 
the  Union  whenever  a  Republican,  or  anything  like  it,  is 
elected  President  of  the  United  States. 

A  VOICE — That  is  so. 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.       137 

MR.  LINCOLN — "That  is  so,"  one  of  them  says;  I  won- 
der if  he  is  a  Kentuekian  ? 

A  VOICE — He  is  a  Douglas  man. 

MR.  LINCOLN — Well,  then,  I  want  to  know  what  you 
are  going  to  do  with  your  half  of  it?  Are  you  going 
to  split  the  Ohio  down  through,  and  push  your  half 
off  a  piece?  Or  are  you  going  to  keep  it  right  along- 
side of  us  outrageous  fellows  ?  Or  are  you  going  to 
build  up  a  wall  some  way  between  your  country  and 
ours,  by  which  that  movable  property  of  yours  can't 
pome  over  here  any  more,  to  the  danger  of  your  losing 
it?  Do  you  think  you  can  better  yourselves  on  that 
subject,  by  leaving  us  here  under  no  obligation  whatever 
to  return  those  specimens  of  your  movable  property  that 
come  hither?  You  have  divided  the  Union  because  we 
would  not  do  right  with  you,  as  you  think,  upon  that 
subject ;  when  we  cease  to  be  under  obligations  to  do 
anything  for  you,  how  much  better  off  do  you  think  you 
will  be?  Will  you  make  war  upon  us,  and  kill  us  all? 
Why,  gentlemen,  I  think  you  are  as  gallant  and  as  brave 
men  as  live  ;  that  you  can  fight  as  bravely  in  a  good 
cause,  man  for  man,  as  any  other  people  living;  that  you 
have  shown  yourselves  capable  of  this  upon  various  occa- 
sions ;  but  man  for  man,  you  are  not  better  than  we  are, 
and  there  are  not  so  many  of  you  as  there  are  of  us. 
You  will  never  make  much  of  a  hand  at  whipping  us. 
If  we  were  fewer  in  numbers  than  you,  I  think  that  you 
could  whip  us  ;  if  we  were  equal,  it  would  likely  be  a 
drawn  battle ;  but  being  inferior  in  numbers,  you  will 
make  nothing  by  attempting  to  master  us. 

But  perhaps  I  have  addressed  myself  as  long,  or  longer, 
to  the  Kentuckians  than  I  ought  to  have  done,  inasmuch 
as  I  have  said  that  whatever  course  you  take  we  intend 
in  the  end  to  beat  you. 
12 


138       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

I  propose  to  address  a  few  remarks  to  our  friends,  by 
•way  of  discussing  with  them  the  best  means  of  keeping 
that  promise  that  I  have  in  good  faith  made. 

It  may  appear  a  little  episodical  for  me  to  mention  the 
topic  of  which  I  shall  speak  now.  It  is  a  favorite  prop- 
osition of  Douglas's  that  the  interference  of  the  General 
Government,  through  the  ordinance  of  '87,  or  through 
any  other  act  of  the  General  Government,  never  has  made 
or  ever  can  make  a  free  state ;  that  the  ordinance  of  '87 
did  not  make  free  states  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  or  Illinois. 
That  these  states  are  free  upon  his  "great  principle"  of 
popular  sovereignty,  because  the  people  of  those  several 
states  have  chosen  to  make  them  so.  At  Columbus,  and 
probably  here,  he  undertook  to  compliment  the  people 
that  they  themselves  have  made  the  State  of  Ohio  free, 
and  that  the  ordinance  of  '87  was  not  entitled,  in  any 
degree,  to  divide  the  honor  with  them.  I  have  no  doubt 
that  the  people  of  the  State  of  Ohio  did  make  her  free 
according  to  their  own  will  and  judgment,  but  let  the 
facts  be  remembered. 

In  1802,  I  believe,  it  was  you  made  your  first  Con- 
stitution, with  the  clause  prohibiting  slavery,  and  you 
did  it,  I  suppose,  very  nearly  unanimously ;  but  you  should 
bear  in  mind  that  you — speaking  of  you  as  one  people — 
that  you  did  so  unembarrassed  by  the  actual  presence  of 
the  institution  among  you  ;  that  you  made  it  a  free  state, 
not  with  the  embarrassment  upon  you  of  already  having 
among  you  many  slaves,  which,  if  they  had  been  here, 
and  you  had  sought  to  make  a  free  state,  you  would  not 
know  what  to  do  with.  If  they  had  been  among  you, 
embarrassing  difficulties,  most  probably,  would  have  in- 
duced you  to  tolerate  a  slave  Constitution  instead  of  a 
free  one,  as  indeed  these  very  difficulties  have  constrained 
every  people  on  this  continent  who  have  adopted  slavery. 


LJFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.       139 

Pray  what  was  it  that  made  you  free?  What  kept  you 
free?  Did  you  not  find  your  country  free  when  you  came 
to  decide  that  Ohio  should  be  a  free  state  ?  It  is  import- 
ant to  inquire  by  what  reason  you  found  it  so  ?  Let  us 
take  an  illustration  between  the  States  of  Ohio  and  Ken- 
tucky. Kentucky  is  separated  by  this  river  Ohio,  not  a 
mile  wide.  A  portion  of  Kentucky,  by  reason  of  the 
course  of  the  Ohio,  is  further  north  than  this  portion  of 
Ohio,  in  which  we  now  stand.  Kentucky  is  entirely  cov- 
ered with  slavery — Ohio  is  entirely  free  from  it.  What 
made  that  difference?  Was  it  climate  ?  No!  A  portion 
of  Kentucky  was  further  north  than  this  portion  of  Ohio. 
Was  it  soil  ?  No  !  There  is  nothing  in  the  soil  of  the 
one  more  favorable  to  slave  labor  than  the  other.  It  was 
not  climate  or  soil  that  caused  one  side  of  the  line  to  be 
entirely  covered  with  slavery,  and  the  other  side  free  of 
it.  What  was  it?  Study  over  it.  Tell  us,  if  you  can, 
in  all  the  range  of  conjecture,  if  there  be  anything  you 
can  conceive  of  that  made  that  difference,  other  than  that 
there  was  no  law  of  any  sort  keeping  it  out  of  Kentucky, 
while  the  ordinance  of  '87  kept  it  out  of  Ohio  ?  If  there 
is  any  other  reason  than  this,  I  confess  that  it  is  wholly 
beyond  my  power  to  conceive  of  it.  This,  then,  I  offer 
to  combat  the  idea  that  that  ordinance  has  never  made 
any  state  free. 

I  do  n't  stop  at  this  illustration.  I  come  to  the  State 
of  Indiana  ;  and  what  I  have  said  as  between  Kentucky 
and  Ohio,  I  repeat  as  between  Indiana  and  Kentucky ; 
it  is  equally  applicable.  One  additional  argument  is  ap- 
plicable also  to  Indiana.  In  her  territorial  condition  she 
more  than  once  petitioned  Congress  to  abrogate  the  ordi- 
nance entirely,  or  at  least  so  far  as  to  suspend  its  opera- 
tion for  a  time,  in  order  that  they  should  exercise  the 
"popular  sovereignty"  of  having  slaves  if  they  wanted 


140        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

them.  The  men  then  controlling  the  General  Govern- 
ment, imitating  the  men  of  the  Revolution,  refused  Indi- 
ana that  privilege.  And  so  we  have  the  evidence  that 
Indiana  supposed  she  could  have  slaves  if  it  were  not  for 
that  ordinance ;  that  she  besought  Congress  to  put  that 
barrier  out  of  the  way ;  that  Congress  refused  to  do  so, 
and  it  all  ended  at  last  in  Indiana  being  a  free  state. 
Tell  me  not,  then,  that  the  ordinance  of  '87  had  nothing 
to  do  with  making  Indiana  a  free  state,  when  we  find 
some  men  chafing  against  and  only  restrained  by  that 
barrier. 

Come  down  again  to  our  State  of  Illinois.  The  great 
Northwest  Territory,  including  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois, 
Michigan,  and  Wisconsin,  was  acquired  first,  I  believe, 
by  the  British  Government,  in  part,  at  least,  from  the 
French.  Before  the  establishment  of  our  independence, 
it  became  a  part  of  Virginia;  enabling  Virginia  after- 
ward to  transfer  it  to  the  General  Government.  There 
were  French  settlements  in  what  is  now  Illinois,  and  at 
the  same  time  there  were  French  settlements  in  what  is 
now  Missouri — in  the  tract  of  country  that  was  not  pur- 
chased till  about  1803.  In  these  French  settlements 
negro  slavery  had  existed  for  many  years — perhaps  more 
than  a  hundred,  if  not  as  much  as  two  hundred  years — 
at  Kaskaskia,  in  Illinois,  and  at  St.  Genevieve,  or  Cape 
Girardeau,  perhaps,  in  Missouri.  The  number  of  slaves 
•was  not  very  great,  but  there  was  about  the  same  num- 
ber in  each  place.  They  were  there  when  we  acquired 
the  territory.  There  was  no  effort  made  to  break  up  the 
relation  of  master  and  slave,  and  even  the  ordinance  of 
1787  was  not  so  enforced  as  to  destroy  that  slavery  in 
Illinois ;  nor  did  the  ordinance  apply  to  Missouri  at  all. 

What  I  want  to  ask  your  attention  to,  at  this  point,  is 
that  Illinois  and  Missouri  came  into  the  Union  about  the 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.         141 

same  time,  Illinois  in  the  latter  part  of  1818,  and  Mis- 
souri, after  a  struggle,  I  believe  some  time  in  1820.  They 
had  been  filling  up  with  American  people  about  the 
same  period  of  time;  their  progress  enabling  them  to 
come  into  the  Union  about  the  same.  At  the  end  of 
that  ten  years,  in  which  they  had  been  so  preparing, 
(for  it  was  about  that  period  of  time,)  the  number  of 
slaves  in  Illinois  had  actually  decreased  ;  while  in  Mis- 
souri, beginning  with  very  few,  at  the  end  of  that  ten 
years,  there  were  about  ten  thousand.  This  being  so, 
and  it  being  remembered  that  Missouri  and  Illinois  are, 
to  a  certain  extent,  in  the  same  parallel  of  latitude — that 
the  northern  half  of  Missouri  and  the  southern  half  of 
Illinois  are  in  the  same  parallel  of  latitude — so  that  cli- 
mate would  have  the  same  effect  upon  one  as  upon  the 
other,  and  that  in  the  soil  there  is  no  material  difference 
so  far  as  bears  upon  the  question  of  slavery  being  settled 
upon  one  or  the  other — there  being  none  of  those  natural 
causes  to  produce  a  difference  in  filling  them,  and  yet 
there  being  a  broad  difference  in  their  filling  up,  we  aro 
led  again  to  inquire  what  was  the  cause  of  that  differ- 
ence. 

It  is  most  natural  to  say  that  in  Missouri  there  was  no 
law  to  keep  that  country  from  filling  up  with  slaves,  while 
in  Illinois  there  was  the  ordinance  of  :87.  The  ordi- 
nance being  there  slavery  decreased  during  that  ten 
years — the  ordinance  not  being  in  the  other,  it  increased 
from  a  few  to  ten  thousand.  Can  anybody  doubt  the 
reason  of  the  difference? 

I  think  all  these  facts  most  abundantly  prove  that  my 
friend  Judge  Douglas's  proposition,  that  the  ordinance 
of  '87,  or  the  national  restriction  of  slavery,  never  had 
a  tendency  to  make  a  free  state,  is  a  fallacy — a  propo- 
sition without  the  shadow  or  substance  of  truth  about  it. 


142        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

Douglas  sometimes  says  that  all  the  states  (and  it  is 
part  of  this  same  proposition  I  have  been  discussing)  that 
have  become  free,  have  become  so  upon  his  "great  prin- 
ciple;" that  the  State  of  Illinois  itself  came  into  the 
Union  as  a  slave  state,  and  that  the  people,  upon  the 
"  great  principle  "  of  Popular  Sovereignty,  have  since 
made  it  a  free  state.  Allow  me  but  a  little  while  to  state 
to  you  what  facts  there  are  to  justify  him  in  saying  that 
Illinois  came  into  the  Union  as  a  slave  state. 

I  have  mentioned  to  you  that  there  were  a  few  old 
French  slaves  there.  They  numbered,  I  think,  one  or 
two  hundred.  Besides  that,  there  had  been  a  territorial 
law  for  indenturing  black  persons.  Under  that  law,  in 
violation  of  the  ordinance  of  '87,  but  without  any  en- 
forcement of  the  ordinance  to  overthrow  the  system,  there 
had  been  a  small  number  of  slaves  introduced  as  inden- 
tured persons.  Owing  to  this  the  clause  for  the  prohibi- 
tion of  slavery  was  slightly  modified.  Instead  of  running 
like  yours,  that  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude, 
except  for  crime  of  which  the  party  shall  have  been  duly 
convicted,  should  exist  in  the  state,  they  said  that  neither 
slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude  should  thereafter  be  in- 
troduced, and  that  the  children  of  indentured  servants 
should  be  born  free ;  and  nothing  was  said  about  the 
few  old  French  slaves.  Out  of  this  fact,  that  the  clause 
for  prohibiting  slavery  was  modified  because  of  the  actual 
presence  of  it,  Douglas  asserts  again  and  again  that 
Illinois  came  into  the  Union  as  a  slave  state.  How  far 
the  facts  sustain  the  conclusion  that  he  draws,  it  is  for 
intelligent  and  impartial  men  to  decide.  I  leave  it  with 
you  with  these  remarks,  worthy  of  being  remembered, 
that  that  little  thing,  those  few  indentured  servants  be- 
ing there,  was  of  itself  sufficient  to  modify  a  Constitution 
made  by  a  people  ardently  desiring  to  have  a  free  Con- 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.        143 

stitution;  showing  the  power  of  the  actual  presence  of  the 
institution  of  slavery  to  prevent  any  people,  however 
anxious  to  make  a  free  state,  from  making  it  perfectly  so. 

I  have  been  detaining  you  longer,  perhaps,  than  I 
ought  to  do. 

I  am  in  some  doubt  whether  to  introduce  another  topic 
upon  which  I  could  talk  a  while.  [Cries  of  "  Go  on," 
and  "  Give  us  it."]  It  is  this  then  :  Douglas's  popular 
sovereignty,  as  a  principle,  is  simply  this:  If  one  man 
chooses  to  make  a  slave  of  another  man,  neither  that  man 
nor  anybody  else  has  a  right  to  object.  Apply  it  to  gov- 
ernment, as  he  seeks  to  apply  it,  and  it  is  this  :  if,  in  a 
new  territory,  into  which  a  few  people  are  beginning  to 
enter  for  the  purpose  of  making  their  homes,  they  choose 
to  either  exclude  slavery  from  their  limits,  or  to  establish 
it  there,  however  one  or  the  other  may  affect  the  persons 
to  be  enslaved,  or  the  infinitely  greater  number  of  per- 
sons who  are  afterward  to  inhabit  that  territory,  or  the 
other  members  of  the  family  of  communities  of  which 
they  are  but  an  incipient  member,  or  the  general  head 
of  the  family  of  states  as  parent  of  all — however  their 
action  may  affect  one  or  the  other  of  these,  there  is  no 
power  or  right  to  interfere.  That  is  Douglas's  popular 
sovereignty  applied.  Now  I  think  that  there  is  a  real 
popular  sovereignty  in  the  world.  I  think  a  definition 
of  popular  sovereignty,  in  the  abstract,  would  be  about 
this:  that  each  man  shall  do  precisely  as  he  pleases  with 
himself,  and  with  all  those  things  which  exclusively  con- 
cern him.  Applied  in  government,  this  principle  would 
be,  that  a  general  government  shall  do  all  those  things 
which  pertain  to  it,  and  all  the  local  governments  shall 
do  precisely  as  they  please  in  respect  to  those  matters 
which  exclusively  concern  them. 

[Upon  what  principle  shall  it  be  said  the  planting  of 


144        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

a  new  territory  by  the  first  thousand  people  that  migrate 
to  it,  is  a  matter  concerning  them  exclusively?  What 
kind  of  logic  is  it  that  argues  that  it  in  no  wise  con- 
cerns, if  you  please,  the  black  men  who  are  to  be  en- 
slaved? Or  if  you  are  afraid  to  say  anything  about 
that ;  if  you  have  been  bedeviled  for  your  sympathy  for 
the  negro  ;  if  noses  have  been  turned  up  at  you ;  and 
if  you  have  been  accused  of  having  wanted  the  negro 
as  your  social  equal,  for  a  juror,  to  be  a  witness  against 
your  white  brethren,  or  even  to  marry  with  him  ;  if  you 
have  been  accused  of  all  this,  until  you  are  afraid  to 
speak  of  the  colored  race ; — then,  I  ask  you,  what  right 
is  there,  to  say  that  the  planting  of  free  soil  with  slavery 
has  no  effect  upon  the  white  men  that  are  to  go  there 
afterward  as  emigrants  from  the  older  states?  By  what 
right  do  a  few  of  the  first  settlers  fix  that  first  condition 
beyond  the  power  of  succeeding  millions  to  eradicate  it? 
Why  shall  a  few  men  be  allowed,  as  it  were,  to  sow  that 
virgin  soil  with  Canada  thistles,  or  any  other  pest  of  the 
soil,  which  the  farmer,  in  subsequent  ages,  cannot  erad- 
icate without  endless  toil.  Is  it  a  matter  that  exclu- 
sively concerns  those  few  people  that  settle  there  first? 

Douglas  argues  that  it  is  a  matter  of  exclusive  local 
jurisdiction.  What  enables  him  to  say  that?  It  is  be- 
cause he  looks  upon  slavery  as  so  insignificant  that  the 
people  may  decide  that  question  for  themselves,  albeit 
they  are  not  fit  to  decide  who  shall  be  their  governor, 
judge,  or  secretary,  or  who  have  been  any  of  their  offi- 
cers. These  are  vast  national  matters,  in  his  estimation  ; 
but  the  little  matter,  in  his  estimation,  is  the  planting 
of  slavery  there.  That  is  of  purely  local  interest,  which 
nobody  should  be  allowed  to  say  a  word  about.  It  is  a 
great  national  question  that  Sammedary  shall  be  ap- 
pointed by  the  President  as  Governor  of  Kansas,  that 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.        145 

he  may  go  there  for  a  year  or  two,  and  come  away  with- 
out there  being  left  behind  him  a  sign  for  good  or  evil 
of  his  having  been  there  ;  but  the  question  of  planting 
slavery  on  that  soil  is  a  little,  local,  unimportant  matter, 
that  nobody  ought  to  be  allowed  to  speak  of.  Such  an 
expression  is  absolutely  shameful. 

Labor  is  the  great  source  from  which  nearly  all,  if  not 
all,  human  comforts  and  necessaries  are  drawn.  There 
is  a  difference  of  opinion  about  the  elements  of  labor  in 
a  society.  Some  men  assume  that  there  is  a  necessary 
connection  between  capital  and  labor,  and  that  connec- 
tion draws  within  it  all  of  the  labor  of  the  community. 
They  assume  that  nobody  works  unless  capital  excites 
him  to  work.  They  begin  next  to  consider  what  is  the 
best  way  for  capital  to  be  used  to  induce  people  to 
work.  They  say  that  there  are  but  two  ways ;  one  is, 
to  hire  men  and  to  allure  them  to  labor  by  their  own 
consent,  and  the  other  is,  to  buy  the  men,  and  drive 
them  to  labor.  This  latter  is  slavery.  Having  assumed 
so  much,  they  proceed  to  discuss  the  question  of  whether 
the  laborers  themselves  are  better  off  in  the  condition 
of  slavery  or  of  hired  laborers;  and  they  usually  decide 
that  they  are  better  off  in  the  condition  of  slaves. 

In  the  first  place,  I  say  that  that  whole  theory  is  a 
mistake.  That  there  is  a  certain  relation  between  cap- 
ital and  labor  I  admit.  That  it  does  exist,  and  right- 
fully exist,  and  that  it  is  proper  that  it  should  exist,  I 
think  is  true.  I  think,  in  the  progress  of  things,  that 
men  who  are  industrious,  and  sober,  and  honest  in  the 
pursuit  of  their  own  interests,  should,  after  a  while,  ac- 
cumulate capital,  and  then  should  be  allowed  to  enjoy 
it  in  peace,  and  also,  if  they  choose,  when  they  have 
accumulated  it,  use  it  to  save  themselves  from  actual 
labor,  by  hiring  other  people  to  labor  for  them.  In 
13 


146       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

doing  so,  they  do  not  wrong  the  man  they  employ,  for 
they  find  young  men  who  have  not  of  their  own  land  to 
•work  upon,  or  shops  to  labor  in,  and  who  are  benefited 
by  working  for  others  in  the  capacity  of  hired  laborers, 
receiving  their  capital  for  it.  Thus,  a  few  men  that  own 
capital,  hire  others,  and  thus  establish  the  relation  of 
capital  and  labor  rightfully;  a  relation  of  which  I  make 
no  complaint.  But  I  insist  that  the  relation,  after  all, 
does  not  embrace  more  than  one-eighth  of  all  the  labor 
of  the  country.  At  least  seven-eighths  of  the  labor  is 
done  without  relation  to  it. 

Take  the  State  of  Ohio.  Out  of  eight  bushels  of 
wheat,  seven  are  raised  by  those  men  who  labor  for 
themselves,  aided  by  their  boys  growing  to  manhood, 
neither  being  hired  nor  hiring,  but  literally  laboring 
upon  their  own  hook,  asking  no  favor  of  capital,  of  hired 
laborer,  or  of  the  slave.  That  is  the  true  condition  of 
the  larger  portion  of  all  the  labor  done  in  this  commu- 
nity, or  that  should  be  the  condition  of  labor  in  well- 
regulated  communities  of  agriculturists.  Thus  much  for 
that  part  of  the  subject. 

Again  :  the  assumption  that  the  slave  is  in  a  better 
condition  than  the  hired  laborer,  includes  the  further 
assumption  that  he  who  is  once  a  hired  laborer  always 
remains  a  hired  laborer;  that  there  is  a  certain  class  of 
men  who  remain  through  life  in  a  dependent  condition. 
Then  they  endeavor  to  point  out  that  when  they  get  old 
they  have  no  kind  masters  to  take  care  of  them,  and 
that  they  fall  dead  in  the  traces,  with  the  harness  of 
actual  labor  upon  their  feeble  backs.  In  point  of  fact 
that  is  a  false  assumption.  There  is  no  such  thing  as 
a  man  who  is  a  hired  laborer,  of  a  necessity,  always 
remaining  in  his  early  condition.  The  general  rule  is 
otherwise.  I  know  it  is  so,  and  I  will  tell  you  why. 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.         147 

When  at  an  early  age,  I  was  myself  a  hired  laborer,  at 
twelve  dollars  per  month  ;  and  therefore  I  do  know  that 
there  is  not  always  the  necessity  for  actual  labor  because 
once  there  was  propriety  in  being  so.  My  understand- 
ing of  the  hired  laborer  is  this  :  A  young  man  finds 
himself  of  an  age  to  be  dismissed  from  parental  control; 
he  has  for  his  capital  nothing,  save  two  strong  hands 
that  God  has  given  him,  a  heart  willing  to  labor,  and  a 
freedom  to  choose  the  mode  of  his  work  and  the  man- 
ner of  his  employer;  he  has  got  no  soil  nor  shop,  and 
he  avails  himself  of  the  opportunity  of  hiring  himself 
to  some  man  who  has  capital  to  pay  him  a  fair  day's 
•wages  for  a  fair  day's  work.  He  is  benefited  by  avail- 
ing himself  of  that  privilege.  He  works  industriously, 
he  behaves  soberly,  and  the  result  of  a  year  or  two's 
labor  is  a  surplus  of  capital.  Now  he  buys  land  on  his 
own  hook ;  he  settles,  marries,  begets  sons  and  daugh- 
ters, and  in  course  of  time  he  too  has  enough  capital 
to  hire  some  new  beginner. 

In  this  same  way  every  member  of  the  whole  com- 
munity benefits  and  improves  his  condition.  That  is 
the  true  condition  of  labor  in  the  world,  and 'it  breaks 
up  the  saying  of  these  men  that  there  is  a  class  of  men 
chained  down  throughout  life  to  labor  for  another. 
There  is  no  such  case  unless  he  be  of  that  confiding  and 
leaning  disposition  that  makes  it  preferable  for  him  to 
choose  that  course,  or  unless  he  be  a  vicious  man,  who, 
by  reason  of  his  vice,  is,  in  some  way  prevented  from 
improving  his  condition,  or  else  he  be  a  singularly  unfor- 
tunate man.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  a  man  being 
bound  down  in  a  free  country  through  his  life  as  a 
laborer.  This  progress  by  which  the  poor,  honest,  in- 
dustrious, and  resolute  man  raises  himself,  that  he  may 
work  on  his  own  account,  and  hire  somebody  else,  is 


148       LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

that  progress  that  human  nature  is  entitled  to,  is  that 
improvement  in  condition  that  is  intended  to  be  secured 
by  those  institutions  under  which  we  live,  is  the  great 
principle  for  which  this  government  was  really  formed. 
Our  government  was  not  established  that  one  man 
might  do  with  himself  as  he  pleases,  and  with  another 
man  too. 

^"'  I  hold  that  if  there  is  any  one  thing  that  can  be 
proved  to  be  the  will  of  God*  by  external  nature  around 
us,  without  reference  to  revelation,  it  is  the  proposition 
that  whatever  any  one  man  earns  with  his  hands  and  by 
the  sweat  of  his  brow,  he  shall  enjoy  in  peace.  I  say 
that  whereas  God  Almighty  has  given  every  man  one 
mouth  to  be  fed,  and  one  pair  of  hands  adapted  to  fur- 
nish food  for  that  mouth,  if  anything  can  be  proved  to 
be  the  will  of  Heaven,  it  is  proved  by  this  fact,  that  that 
mouth  is  to  be  fed  by  those  hands,  without  being  inter- 
fered with  by  any  other  man  who  has  also  his  mouth  to 
feed  and  his  hands  to  labor  with.  I  hold  if  the  Al- 
mighty had  ever  made  a  set  of  men  that  should  do  all 
the  eating  and  none  of  the  work,  he  would  have  made 
them  with  mouths  only  and  no  hands,  and  if  he  had  ever 
made  another  class  that  he  had  intended  should  do  all 
the  work  and  none  of  the  eating,  he  would  have  made 
them  without  mouths  and  with  all  hands.  But  inasmuch 
as  he  has  not  chosen  to  make  man  in  that  way,  if  any- 
thing is  proved,  it  is  that  those  hands  and  mouths  are 
to  be  co-operative  through  life  and  not  to  be  interfered 
with.  That  they  are  to  go  forth  and  improve  their  con- 
dition as  I  have  been  trying  to  illustrate,  is  the  inherent 
right  given  to  mankind  directly  by  the  Maker. 

In  the  exercise  of  this  right  you  must  have  room.  In 
the  filling  up  of  countries,  it  turns  out  after  a  while  that 
we  get  so  thick  that  we  have  not  quite  room  enough  for 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        149 

the  exercise  of  that  right,  and  we  desire  to  go  somewhere 
else.  Where  shall  we  go  to  ?  Where  shall  you  go  to 
escape  from  over-population  and  competition  ?  To  those 
new  territories  which  belong  to  us,  which  are  God-given 
for  that  purpose.  If,  then,  you  will  go  to  those  territo- 
ries that  you  may  improve  your  condition,  you  have  a 
right  to  keep  them  in  the  best  condition  for  those  going 
into  them,  and  can  they  make  that  natural  advance  in 
their  condition  if  they  find  the  institution  of  slavery 
planted  there? 

My  good  friends,  let  me  ask  you  a  question — you  who 
have  come  from  Virginia  or  Kentucky,  to  get  rid  of  this 
thing  of  slavery — let  me  ask  you  what  headway  would 
you  have  made  in  getting  rid  of  it,  if  by  popular  sover- 
eignty you  find  slavery  on  that  soil  which  you  looked 
for  to  b'e  free  when  you  get  there  ?  You  would  not 
have  made  much  headway  if  you  had  found  slavery 
already  here,  if  you  had  to  sit  down  to  your  labor  by  the 
side  of  the  unpaid  workman. 

I  say,  then,  that  it  is  due  to  yourselves  as  voters,  as 
owners  of  the  new  territories,  that  you  shall  keep  those 
territories  free,  in  the  best  condition  for  all  such  of  your 
gallant  sons  as  may  choose  to  go  there. 

I  do  not  desire  to  elaborate  this  branch  of  the  general 
subject  of  political  discussion  at  this  time  further.  I 
did  not  think  I  would  get  upon  this  topic  at  all,  and  I 
have  detained  you  already  too  long  in  its  discussion.] 

I  have  taken  upon  myself,  in  the  name  of  some  of 
you,  to  say  that  we  expect,  upon  these  principles,  to 
ultimately  beat  them.  In  order  to  do  so,  I  think  we 
want  and  must  have  a  national  policy  in  regard  to  the 
institution  of  slavery,  that  acknowledges  and  deals  with 
that  institution  as  being  wrong.  Whoever  desires  the 
prevention  of  the  spread  of  slavery  and  the  nationaliza- 


150        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

tion  of  that  institution,  yields  all,  when  he  yields  to  any 
policy  that  either  recognizes  slavery  as  being  right,  or 
as  being  an  indifferent  thing.  Nothing  will  make  you 
successful  but  setting  up  a  policy  which  shall  treat  the 
thing  as  being  wrong.  When  I  say  this,  I  do  not  mean 
to  say  that  this  General  Government  is  charged  with  the 
duty  of  redressing  or  preventing  all  the  wrongs  in  the 
world;  but  I  do  think  that  it  is  charged  with  prevent- 
ing and  tedressing  all  wrongs  which  are  wrongs  to  itself. 
This  Government  is  expressly  charged  with  the  duty  of 
providing  for  the  general  welfare.  We  believe  that  the 
spreading  out  and  perpetuity  of  the  institution  of  slavery 
impairs  the  general  welfare.  We  believe — nay,  we  know, 
that  that  is  the  only  thing  that  has  ever  threatened  the 
perpetuity  of  the  Union  itself.  The  only  thing  which 
has  ever  menaced  the  destruction  of  the  government 
under  which  we  live  is  this  very  thing.  To  repress  this 
thing,  we  think,  is  providing  for  the  general  welfare. 
Our  friends  in  Kentucky  differ  from  us.  We  need  not 
make  our  argument  for  them  ;  but  we,  who  think  it  is 
wrong  in  all  its  relations,  or  in  some  of  them  at  least, 
must  decide  as  to  our  own  actions,  and  our  own  course, 
upon  our  own  judgment. 

I  say  that  we  must  not  interfere  with  the  institution 
of  slavery  in  the  states  where  it  exists,  because  the  Con- 
stitution forbids  it,  and  the  general  welfare  does  not 
require  us  to  do  so.  We  must  not  withhold  an  efficient 
fugitive  slave  law ;  because  the  Constitution  requires  us, 
as  I  understand  it,  not  to  withhold  such  a  law.  But 
we  must  prevent  the  outspreading  of  the  institution; 
because  neither  the  Constitution  nor  general  welfare 
requires  us  to  extend  it.  We  must  prevent  the  revival 
of  the  African  slave-trade,  and  the  enacting,  by  Congress, 
of  a  territorial  slave  code.  We  must  prevent  each  of 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN         151 

these  things  being  done  by  either  congresses  or  courts. 
The  people  of  these  United  States  are  the  rightful 
masters  of  both  congresses  and  courts,  not  to  overthrow 
the  Constitution,  but  to  overthrow  the  men  who  pervert 
the  Constitution. 

To  do  these  things  we  must  employ  instrumentalities. 
We  must  hold  conventions;  we  must  adopt  platforms,  if 
wo  conform  to  ordinary  custom  ;  we  must  nominate  can- 
didates, and  we  must  carry  elections.  In  all  these  things, 
I  think  that  we  ought  to  keep  in  view  our  real  purpose, 
and  in  none  do  anything  that  stands  adverse  to  our  pur- 
pose. If  we  shall  adopt  a  platform  that  fails  to  recog- 
nize or  express  our  purpose,  or  elect  a  man  that  declares 
himself  inimical  to  our  purpose,  we  not  only  make  nothing 
by  our  success,  but  we  tacitly  admit  that  we  act  upon  no 
other  principle  than  a  desire  to  have  "the  loaves  and 
fishes,"  by  which,  in  the  end,  our  apparent  success  is 
really  an  injury  to  us. 

I  know  that  this  is  very  desirable  with  me,  as  with 
everybody  else,  that  all  the  elements  of  the  Opposition 
shall  unite  in  the  next  Presidential  election  and  in  all 
future  time.  I  am  anxious  that  that  should  be,  but  there 
are  things  seriously  to  be  considered  in  relation  to  that 
matter.  If  the  terms  can  be  arranged,  I  am  in  favor 
of  the  Union.  But,  suppose  we  shall  take  up  some 
man  and  put  him  upon  one  end  or  the  other  of  the 
ticket,  who  declares  himself  against  us  in  regard  to  the 
prevention  of  the  spread  of  slavery — who  turns  up  his 
nose,  and  says  he  is  tired  of  hearing  anything  more 
about  it — who  is  more  against  us  than  against  the  ene- 
my, what  will  be  the  issue  ?  Why,  he  will  get  no  slave 
states  after  all — he  has  tried  that  already,  until  being 
beat  is  the  rule  for  birn.  If  we  nominate  him  upon 
that  ground,  he  will  not  carry  a  slave  state,  and  not 


152       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

only  so,  but  that  portion  of  our  men  who  are  high- 
strung  upon  the  principle  we  really  fight  for,  will  not 
go  for  him,  and  lie  won't  get  a  single  electoral  vote 
anywhere,  except,  perhaps,  in  the  State  of  Maryland. 
There  is  no  use  in  saying  to  us  that  we  are  stubborn 
and  obstinate,  because  we  won't  do  some  such  thing  as 
this.  We  can  not  do  it.  We  can  not  get  our  men  to 
vote  it.  I  speak  by  the  card,  that  we  can  not  give  the 
State  of  Illinois,  in  such  case,  by  fifty  thousand.  We 
would  be  flatter  down  than  the  "  Negro  Democracy " 
themselves  have  the  heart  to  wish  to  see  us. 

After  saying  this  much,  let  me  say  a  little  on  the 
other  side.  There  are  plenty  of  men  in  the  slave  states 
that  are  altogether  good  enough  for  me,  to  be  either 
President  or  Vice-President,  provided  they  will  profess 
their  sympathy  with  our  purpose,  and  will  place  them- 
selves on  the  ground  that  our  men,  upon  principle,  can 
vote  for  them.  There  are  scores  of  them,  good  men  in 
their  character  for  intelligence  and  talent  and  integrity. 
If  such  a  one  will  place  himself  upon  the  right  ground, 
I  ara  for  his  occupying  one  place  upon  the  next  Repub- 
lican or  Opposition  ticket.  I  will  heartily  go  for  him. 
But,  unless  he  does  so  place  himself,  I  think  it  a  mat- 
ter of  perfect  nonsense  to  attempt  to  bring  about  a 
union  upon  any  other  basis;  that  if  a  union  be  made, 
the  elements  will  scatter  so  that  there  can  be  no  success 
for  such  a  ticket,  nor  anything  like  success.  The  good 
old  maxims  of  the  Bible  are  applicable,  and  truly  appli- 
cable, to  human  affairs;  and  in  this,  as  in  other  things, 
we  may  say  here  that  "  He  who  is  not  for  us  is  against 
us ;  "  "  He  who  gathereth  not  with  us  scattereth."  1 
should  be  glad  to  have  some  of  the  many  good,  and  able, 
and  noble  men  of  the  South  to  place  themselves  where 
we  can  confer  upon  them  the  high  honor  of  an  election, 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        153 

upon  one  or  the  other  end  of  our  ticket.  It  would  do 
my  soul  good  to  do  that  thing.  It  would  enable  us 
to  teach  them  that,  inasmuch  as  we  select  one  of  their 
own  number  to  carry  out  our  principles,  we  are  free 
from  the  charge  that  we  mean  more  than  we  say. 

But,  my  friends,  I  have  detained  you  much  longer 
than  I  expected  to  do.  I  believe  I  may  do  myself  the 
compliment  to  say,,  that  you  have  stayed  and  heard  me 
with  great  patience,  for  which  I  return  you  my  most 
sincere  thanks. 


SPEECH 


INTERNAL    IMPROVEMENTS, 


IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 
JUNE  20,  1818. 


Ix  Committee  of  the  Whole  on  the  state  of  the  Union,  on  the 
Civil  and  Diplomatic  Appropriation  Bill,  Mr. LINCOLN  said: 

MR.  CHAIRMAN:  I  wish  at  all  times  in  no  way  to  prac- 
tice any  fraud  upon  the  House  or  the  Committee,  and  I 
also  desire  to  do  nothing  which  may  be  very  disagree- 
able to  any  of  the  members.  I  therefore  state,  in  ad- 
vance, that  my  object  in  taking  the  floor  is  to  make  a 
speech  on  the  general  subject  of  internal  im  prove  me  nts  ; 
and  if  I  am  out  of  order  in  doing  so,  I  give  the  Chair 
an  opportunity  of  so  deciding,  and  I  will  take  my  seat. 

The  CHAIR. — I  will  not  undertake  to  anticipate  what 
the  gentleman  may  say  on  the  subject  of  internal  im- 
provements. He  will,  therefore,  proceed  in  his  remarks, 
and,  if  any  question  of  order  shall  be  made,  the  Chair 
will  then  decide  it. 

Mr.  LINCOLN. — At  an  early  day  of  this  session  the 
President  sent  to  us  what  may  properly  be  called  an  in- 
ternal-improvement veto  message.  The  late  Democratic 
(154) 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.        155 

Convention  \vhich  sat  at  Baltimore,  and  which  nominated 
General  Cass  for  the  Presidency,  adopted  a  set  of  resolu- 
tions, now  called  the  Democratic  platform,  among  which 
is  one  in  these  words: 

"That  the  Constitution  does  not  confer  upon  the  General  Gov- 
ernment the  power  to  commence  and  carry  on  a  general  system 
of  internal  improvements." 

General  Cass,  in  his  letter  accepting  the  nomination, 
holds  this  language  : 

"  I  have  carefully  read  the  resolutions  of  the  Democratic  Na- 
tional Convention,  laying  down  the  platform  of  our  political  faith, 
and  I  adhere  to  them  as  firmly  as  I  approve  them  cordially." 

These  things,  taken  together,  show  that  the  question 
of  internal  improvements  is  now  more  distinctly  made — 
has  become  more  intense,  than  at  any  former  period.  It 
can  no  longer  be  avoided.  The  veto  message  and  the 
Baltimore  resolution  I  understand  to  be,  in  substance, 
the  same  thing;  the  latter  being  the  mere  general  state- 
ment, of  which  the  former  is  the  amplification — the  bill 
of  particulars.  While  I  know  there  are  many  Demo- 
crats, on  this  floor  and  elsewhere,  who  disapprove  that 
message,  I  understand  that  all  who  shall  vote  for  Gen- 
eral Cass  will  thereafter  be  counted  as  having  approved 
it,  as  having  indorsed  all  its  doctrines.  I  suppose  all,  or 
nearly  all,  the  Democrats  will  vote  for  him.  Many  of 
them  will  do  so,  not  because  they  like  his  position  on 
this  question,  but  because  they  prefer  him,  being  wrong 
in  this,  to  another  whom  they  consider  further  wrong  on 
other  questions.  In  this  way  the  internal  improvement 
Democrats  are  to  be,  by  a  sort  of  forced  consent,  carried 
over,  and  arrayed  against  themselves  on  this  measure 


156        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

of  policy.  General  Cass,  once  elected,  will  not  trouble 
himself  to  make  a  constitutional  argument,  or,  perhaps, 
any  argument  at  all,  when  he  shall  veto  a  river  or  har- 
bor bill.  He  will  consider  it  a  sufficient  answer  to  all 
Democratic  murmurs,  to  point  to  Mr.  Folk's  message, 
and  to  the  "Democratic  platform."  This  being  the  case, 
the  question  of  improvements  is  verging  to  a  final  crisis; 
and  the  friends  of  the  policy  must  now  battle,  and  battle 
manfully,  or  surrender  all.  In  this  view,  humble  as  I 
am,  I  wish  to  review,  and  contest,  as  well  as  I  may,  the 
general  positions  of  this  veto  message.  When  I  say 
general  positions,  I  mean  to  exclude  from  consideration 
so  much  as  relates  to  the  present  embarrassed  state  of  the 
treasury,  in  consequence  of  the  Mexican  war. 

Those  general  positions  are  :  That  internal  improve- 
ments ought  not  to  be  made  by  the  General  Govern- 
ment: 

1.  Because  they  would  overwhelm  the  treasury. 

2.  Because,  while  their  burdens  would  be  general,  their 
benefits  would  be  local  and  partial,  involving  an  obnox- 
ious inequality ;  and 

3.  Because  they  would  be  unconstitutional. 

4.  Because  the  States  may  do  enough  by  the  levy  and 
collection  of  tonnage  duties  ;  or,  if  not, 

5.  That  the  Constitution  may  be  amended. 

"Do  nothing  at  all,  lest  you  do  something  wrong," 
is  the  sum  of  these  positions — is  the  sum  of  this  mes< 
Bage  ;  and  this,  with  the  exception  of  what  is  said  about 
constitutionality,  applying  as  forcibly  to  making  im- 
provements by  State  authority,  as  by  the  national  au- 
thority. So  that  we  must  abandon  the  improvements  of 
the  country  altogether,  by  any  and  every  authority,  or  we 
must  resist  and  repudiate  the  doctrines  of  this  message. 
Let  us  attempt  the  latter. 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.         157 

The  first  position  is,  that  a  system  of  internal  improve- 
ment would  overwhelm  the  treasury. 

That  in  such  a  system  there  is  a  tendency  to  undue  ex- 
pansion, is  not  to  be  denied.  Such  tendency  is  founded 
in  the  nature  of  the  subject.  A  member  of  Congress 
will  prefer  voting  for  a  bill  which  contains  an  appropria- 
tion for  his  district,  to  voting  for  one  which  does  not; 
and  when  a  bill  shall  be  expanded  till  every  district  shall 
be  provided  for,  that  it  will  be  too  greatly  expanded  is 
obvious.  But  is  this  any  more  true  in  Congress  than  in 
a  State  Legislature  ?  If  a  member  of  Congress  must 
have  an  appropriation  for  his  district,  so  a  member  of  the 
Legislature  must  have  one  for  his  county  ;  and  if  one 
will  overwhelm  the  national  treasury,  so  the  other  will 
overwhelm  the  State  treasury.  Go  where  we  will,  the 
difficulty  is  the  same.  Allow  it  to  drive  us  from  the 
halls  of  Congress,  and  it  will  just  as  easily  drive  us  from 
the  State  Legislatures.  Let  us,  then,  grapple  with  it, 
and  test  its  strength.  Let  us,  judging  of  the  future  by 
the  past,  ascertain  whether  there  may  not  be,  in  the  dis- 
cretion of  Congress,  a  sufficient  power  to  limit  and  re- 
strain this  expansive  tendency  within  reasonable  and 
proper  bounds.  The  President  himself  values  the  evi- 
dence of  the  past.  He  tells  us,  that  at  a  certain  point 
of  our  history,  more  than  two  hundred  millions  of  dol- 
lars had  been  applic.d  for,  to  make  improvements  ;  and 
this  he  does  to  prove  that  the  treasury  would  be  over- 
whelmed by  such  a  system.  Why  did  he  not  tell  us 
how  much  was  granted  f  Would  not  that  have  been 
better  evidence?  Let  us  turn  to  it,  and  see  what  it 
proves.  In  the  message,  the  President  tells  us  that 
"  during  the  four  succeeding  years,  embraced  by  the  ad- 
ministration of  President  Adams,  the  power  not  only  to 
appropriate  money,  but  to  apply  it,  under  the  direction 


158        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

and  authority  of  the  General  Government,  as  well  to  the 
construction  of  roads  as  to  the  improvement  of  harbors 
and  rivers,  was  fully  asserted  and  exercised." 

This,  then,  was  the  period  of  greatest  enormity. 
These,  if  any,  must  have  been  the  days  of  the  two  hun- 
dred millions.  And  how  much  do  you  suppose  was  really 
expended  for  improvements  during  that  four  years? 
Two  hundred  millions?  One  hundred  ?  Fifty?  Ten? 
Five?  No,  sir,  less  than  two  millions.  As  shown  by 
authentic  documents,  the  expenditures  on  improvements, 
during  1825, 1826, 1827,  and  1828,  amounted  to  $1,879,- 
627  01.  These  four  years  were  the  period  of  Mr. 
Adams's  administration,  nearly,  and  substantially.  This 
fact  shows,  that  when  the  power  to  make  improvements 
"  was  fully  asserted  and  exercised,"  the  Congresses  did 
keep  within  reasonable  limits  ;  and  what  7ias  been  done, 
it  seems  to  me,  can  be  done  again. 

Now  for  the  second  position  of  the  message,  namely, 
that  the  burdens  of  improvements  would  be  general, 
while  their  benrjifs  would  be  local  and  partial,  involving 
an  obnoxious  inequality.  That  there  is  some  degree  of 
truth  in  this  position  I  shall  not  deny.  No  commercial 
object  of  government  patronage  can  be  so  exclusively 
general,  as  not  to  be  of  some  peculiar  local  advantage ;  but, 
on  the  other  hand,  nothing  is  so  local  as  not  to  be  of  some 
general  advantage.  The  navy,  as  I  understand  it,  was 
established,  and  is  maintained,  at  a  great  annual  expense, 
partly  to  be  ready  for  war,  when  war  shall  come,  but 
partly  also,  and  perhaps  chiefly,  for  the  protection  of 
our  commerce  on  the  high  seas.  This  latter  object  is, 
for  all  I  can  see,  in  principle,  the  same  as  internal  im- 
provements. The  driving  a  pirate  from  the  track  of 
commerce  on  the  broad  ocean,  and  the  removing  a  snag 
from  its  more  narrow  path  in  the  Mississippi  river,  can 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.         159 

not,  I  think,  be  distinguished  in  principle.  Each  is  done 
to  save  life  and  property,  and  for  nothing  else.  The  navy, 
then,  is  the  most  general  in  its  benefits  of  all  this  class 
of  objects;  and  yet  even  the  navy  is  of  some  peculiar 
advantage  to  Charleston,  Baltimore,  Philadelphia,  New 
York,  and  Boston,  beyond  what  it  is  to  the  interior 
towns  of  Illinois.  The  next  most  general  object  I  can 
think  of,  would  be  improvements  on  the  Mississippi 
river  and  its  tributaries.  They  touch  thirteen  of  our 
states — Pennsylvania,  Virginia,  Kentucky,  Tennessee, 
Mississippi,  Louisiana,  Arkansas,  Missouri,  Illinois,  In- 
diana, Ohio,  Wisconsin,  and  Iowa.  Now,  I  suppose  it 
will  not  be  denied,  that  these  thirteen  states  are  a  little 
more  interested  in  improvements  on  that  great  river  than 
are  the  remaining  seventeen.  These  instances  of  the 
navy  and  the  Mississippi  river,  show  clearly  that  there 
is  something  of  local  advantage  in  the  most  general  ob- 
jects. But  the  converse  is  also  true.  Nothing  is  so 
local  as  not  to  be  of  some  general  benefit.  Take,  for 
instance,  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  canal.  Considered 
apart  from  its  effects,  it  is  perfectly  local.  Every  inch 
of  it  is  within  the  State  of  Illinois.  That  canal  was 
first  opened  for  business  last  April.  In  a  very  few 
days  we  were  all  gratified  to  learn,  among  other  things, 
that  sugar  had  been  carried  from  New  Orleans,  through 
the  canal,  to  Buffalo,  in  New  York.  This  sugar  took 
this  route,  doubtless,  because  it  was  cheaper  than  the  old 
route.  Supposing  the  benefit  in  the  reduction  of  the 
cost  of  carriage  to  be  shared  between  seller  and  buyer, 
the  result  is,  that  the  New  Orleans  merchant  sold  his 
sugar  a  little  dearer,  and  the  people  of  Buffalo  sweetened 
their  coffee  a  little  cheaper  than  before;  a  benefit  result- 
ing from  the  canal,  not  to  Illinois  where  the  canal  is, 
but  to  Louisiana  and  New  York,  where  it  is  not.  la 


160        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

other  transactions  Illinois  will,  of  course,  have  her  share, 
and  perhaps  the  larger  share  too,  in  the  benefits  of  the 
canal ;  but  the  instance  of  the  sugar  clearly  shows,  that 
the  benefits  of  an  improvement  are  by  no  means  confined 
to  the  particular  locality  of  the  improvement  itself. 

The  just  conclusion  from  all  this  is,  that  if  the  na- 
tion refuse  to  make  improvements  of  the  more  general 
kind,  because  their  benefits  may  be  somewhat  local,  a 
state  may,  for  the  same  reason,  refuse  to  make  an  im- 
provement of  a  local  kind,  because  its  benefits  may  be 
somewhat  general.  A  state  may  well  say  to  the  nation: 
"If  you  will  do  nothing  for  me,  I  will  do  nothing  for 
you."  Thus  it  is  seen,  that  if  this  argument  of  "  ine- 
quality" is  sufficient  anywhere,  it  is  sufficient  every- 
where, and  puts  an  end  to  improvements  altogether.  I 
hope  and  believe,  that  if  both  the  nation  and  the  states 
would,  in  good  faith,  in  their  respective  spheres,  do  what 
they  could  in  the  way  of  improvements,  what  of  inequal- 
ity might  be  produced  in  one  place  might  be  compen- 
sated in  another,  and  that  the  sum  of  the  whole  might 
not  be  very  unequal.  But  suppose,  after  all,  there 
should  be  some  degree  of  inequality :  inequality  is  cer- 
tainly never  to  be  embraced  for  its  own  sake;  but  is 
every  good  thing  to  be  discarded  which  may  be  insepa- 
rably connected  with  some  degree  of  it?  If  so,  we  must 
discard  all  government.  This  capitol  is  built  at  the  pub- 
lic expense,  for  the  public  benefit ;  but  does  any  one 
doubt  that  it  is  of  some  peculiar  local  advantage  to  the 
property  holders  and  business  people  of  Washington? 
Shall  we  remove  it  for  this  reason?  And  if  so,  where 
shall  we  set  it  down,  and  be  free  from  the  difficulty? 
To  make  sure  of  our  object,  shall  we  locate  it  nowhere? 
And  have  Congress  hereafter  to  hold  its  sessions,  as  the 
loafer  lodged,  "  in  spots  about?"  I  make  no  special  allu- 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  1C1 

sion  to  the  present  President  when  I  say,  there  are  few 
stronger  cases  in  this  world  of,  "burden  to  the  many,  and 
benefit  to  the  few" — of  "inequality" — than  the  Presi- 
dency itself  is  by  some  thought  to  be.  An  honest  laborer 
digs  coal  at  about  seventy  cents  a  day,  while  the  Pres- 
ident digs  abstractions  at  about  seventy  dollars  a  day. 
The  coal  is  clearly  worth  more  than  the  abstractions,  and 
yet  what  a  monstrous  inequality  in  the  prices.  Does 
the  President,  for  this  reason,  propose  to  abolish  the 
Presidency?  He  does  not,  and  he  ought  not.  The  true 
rule,  in  determining  to  embrace  or  reject  anything,  is 
not  whether  it  have  any  evil  in  it,  but  whether  it  have 
more  of  evil  than  of  good.  There  are  few  things  wholly 
evil  or  wholly  good.  Almost  everything,  especially  of 
governmental  policy,  is  an  inseparable  compound  of  the 
two;  so  that  our  best  judgment  of  the  preponderance 
between  them  is  continually  demanded.  On  this  prin- 
ciple, the  President,  his  friends,  and  the  world  gener- 
ally, act  on  most  subjects.  Why  not  apply  it,  then, 
upon  this  question?  Why,  as  to  improvements,  mag- 
nify the  evil,  arid  stoutly  refuse  to  see  any  good  in  them? 
Mr.  Chairman,  on  the  third  position  of  the  message, 
(the  constitutional  question,)  I  have  not  much  to  say. 
Being  the  man  I  am,  and  speaking  when  I  do,  I  feel 
that  in  any  attempt  at  an  original,  constitutional  argu- 
ment, I  should  not  be,  and  ought  not  to  be,  listened  to 
patiently.  The  ablest  and  the  best  of  men  have  gone 
over  the  whole  ground  long  ago.  I  shall  attempt  but 
little  more  than  a  brief  notice  of  what  some  of  them 
have  said.  In  relation  to  Mr.  Jefferson's  views,  I  read 
from  Mr.  Polk's  veto  message  : 

"  President  Jefferson,  in  his  message  to  Congress  in  1806,  rec- 
ommended an  amendment  of  the  Constitution,  with  a  view  to  ap- 
ply an  anticipated  surplus  in  the  treasury,  'to  the  great  purposes 
14 


162        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

of  the  public  education,  roads,  rivers,  canals,  and  such  other  ob- 
jects of  public  improvements  as  it  may  be  thought  proper  to  add 
to  the  constitutional  enumeration  of  the  Federal  powers.'  And 
he  adds:  'I  suppose  an  amendment  to  the  Conslitution,  by  con- 
sent of  the  states,  necessary,  because  the  objects  now  recom- 
mended, are  not  among  those  enumerated  in  the  Constitution,  and 
to  which  it  permits  the  public  moneys  to  be  applied.'  In  182-3,  he 
repeated,  in  his  published  letters,  the  opinion  that  no  such  power 
has  been  conferred  upon  Congress/' 

I  introduce  this,  not  to  controvert,  just  now,  the  con- 
stitutional opinion,  but  to  show,  that  on  the  question  of 
expediency,  Mr.  Jefferson's  opinion  was  against  the  pres- 
ent President — that  this  opinion  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  in  one 
branch  at  least,  is,  in  the  hands  of  Mr.  Polk,  like  Mc- 
Fingal's  gun  : 

"  Bears  wide  and  kicks  the  owner  over." 

But,  to  the  constitutional  question.  In  182G,  Chan- 
cellor Kent  first  published  his  Commentaries  on  Amer- 
ican Law.  He  devoted  a  portion  of  one  of  the  lectures 
to  the  question  of  the  authority  of  Congress  to  appro- 
priate public  moneys  for  internal  improvements.  He 
mentions  that  the  question  had  never  been  brought  un- 
der judicial  consideration,  and  proceeds  to  give  a  brief 
summary  of  the  discussions  it  had  undergone  between 
the  legislative  and  the  executive  branches  of  the  gov- 
ernment. He  shows  that  the  legislative  branch  had 
usually  been  for,  and  the  executive  against,  the  power, 
till  the  period  of  Mr.  J.  Q.  Adams's  administration  ;  at 
which  point  he  considers  the  executive  influence  as 
withdrawn  from  opposition,  and  added  to  the  support  of 
the  power.  In  1844,  the  chancellor  published  a  new 
edition  of  his  Commentaries,  in  which  he  adds  some 
notes  of  what  had  transpired  on  the  question  since  1826. 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.         163 

I  have  not  time  to  read  the  original  text,  or  the  notes, 
but  the  whole  may  be  found  on  page  267,  and  the  two 
or  three  following  pages  of  the  first  volume  of  the  edi- 
tion of  18-14.  As  what  Chancellor  Kent  seems  to  con- 
sider the  sum  of  the  whole,  I  read  from  one  of  the 
notes : 

"  Mr.  Justice  Story,  in  his  Commentaries  on  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States,  vol.  2,  page  429-440,  and  again,  page  519- 
538,  has  stated  at  large  the  arguments  for  and  against  the  prop- 
osition that  Congress  have  a  constitutional  authority  to  lay  taxes, 
and  to  apply  the  power  to  regulate  commerce,  as  a  means  directly 
to  encourage  and  protect  domestic  manufactures;  and,  •without 
giving  any  opinion  of  his  own  on  the  contested  doctrine,  he  lias 
left  the  reader  to  draw  his  own  conclusions.  I  should  think, 
however,  from  the  arguments  as  stated,  that  every  mind  which, 
has  taken  no  part  in  the  discussions,  and  felt  no  prejudice  or 
territorial  bias  on  either  side  of  the  question,  would  deem  the 
arguments  in  favor  of  the  Congressional  power  vastly  superior." 

It  will  be  seen,  that  in  this  extract,  the  power  to 
make  improvements  is  not  directly  mentioned;  but  by 
examining  the  context,  both  of  Kent  and  of  Story,  it 
will  appear  that  the  power  mentioned  in  the  extract  and 
the  power  to  make  improvements,  are  regarded  as  ident- 
ical. It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  many  great  and  good 
men  have  been  against  the  power;  but  it  is  insisted  that 
quite  as  many,  as  great  and  as  good,  have  been  for  it  j 
and  it  is  shown  that,  on  a  full  survey  of  the  whole, 
Chancellor  Kent  was  of  opinion  that  the  arguments  of 
the  latter  were  vastly  superior.  This  is  but  the  opinion 
of  a  man  ;  but  who  was  that  man  ?  He  was  one  of  the 
ablest  and  most  learned  lawyers  of  his  age,  or  of  any 
age.  It  is  no  disparagement  to  Mr.  Polk,  nor,  indeed,  to 
any  one  who  devotes  much  time  to  politics,  to  be  placed 
far  behind  Chancellor  Kent  as  a  lawyer.  His  attitude 


164        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

was  most  favorable  to  correct  conclusions.  He  wrote 
coolly,  and  in  retirement.  He  was  struggling  to  rear 
a  durable  monument  of  fame  ;  and  he  well  knew  tbat 
truth  and  thoroughly  sound  reasoning  were  the  only  sure 
foundations.  Can  the  party  opinion  of  a  party  Presi- 
dent, on  a  law  question,  as  this  purely  is,  be  at  all  com- 
pared or  set  in  opposition  to  that  of  such  a  man,  in  such 
an  attitude,  as  Chancellor  Kent? 

This  constitutional  question  will  probably  never  be 
better  settled  than  it  is,  until  it  shall  pass  under  judicial 
consideration  ;  but  I  do  think  no  man  who  is  clear  on 
this  question  of  expediency  need  feel  his  conscience 
much  pricked  upon  this. 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  President  seems  to  think  that 
enough  may  be  done  in  the  way  of  improvements,  by 
means  of  tonnage  duties,  under  state  authority,  with  the 
consent  of  the  General  Government.  Now,  I  suppose 
this  manner  of  tonnage  duties  is  well  enough  in  its  own 
sphere.  I  suppose  it  may  be  efficient,  and  perhaps  suf- 
ficient, to  make  slight  improvements  and  repairs  in  har- 
bors already  in  use,  and  not  much  out  of  repair.  But 
if  I  have  any  correct  general  idea  of  it,  it  must  be  wholly 
inefficient  for  any  generally  beneficent  purposes  of  im- 
provement. I  know  very  little,  or  rather  nothing  at  all, 
of  the  practical  matter  of  levying  and  collecting  tonnage 
duties  ;  but  I  suppose  one  of  its  principles  must  be,  to 
lay  a  duty,  for  the  improvement  of  any  particular  harbor, 
upon  the  tonnage  coming  into  that  harbor.  To  do  other- 
wise— to  collect  money  in  one  harbor  to  be  expended  on 
improvements  in  another — would  be  an  extremely  aggra- 
vated form  of  that  inequality  which  the  President  so 
much  deprecates.  If  I  be  right  in  this,  how  could  we 
make  any  entirely  new  improvements  by  means  of  ton- 
nage duties?  How  make  a  road,  a  canal,  or  clear  a 


^        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        165 

greatly  obstructed  river  ?  The  idea  that  we  could,  in- 
volves the  same  absurdity  of  the  Irish  bull  about  the 
new  boots  :  "  I  shall  niver  get  'em  on,"  says  Patrick, 
"till  I  wear  'em  a  day  or  two,  and  stretch  'era  a  little." 
We  shall  never  make  a  canal  by  tonnage  duties,  until  it 
shall  already  have  been  made  a  while,  so  the  tonnage  can 
get  into  it. 

After  all,  the  President  concludes  that  possibly  there 
may  be  some  great  objects  of  improvements  which  can 
not  be  effected  by  tonnage  duties,  and  which,  therefore, 
may  be  expedient  for  the  General  Government  to  take 
in  hand.  Accordingly,  he  suggests,  in  case  any  such 
be  discovered,  the  propriety  of  amending  the  Constitu- 
tion. Amend  it  for  what?  If,  like  Mr.  Jefferson,  the 
President  thought  improvements  expedient,  but  not  con- 
stitutional, it  would  be  natural  enough  for  him  to  rec- 
ommend such  an  amendment;  but  hear  what  he  says  in 
this  very  message : 

"In  view  of  these  portentous  consequences,  I  cannot  but  think 
that  this  course  of  legislation  should  be  arrested,  even  were  there 
nothing  to  forbid  it  in  the  fundamental  laws  of  our  Union." 

For  what,  then,  would  he  have  the  Constitution 
amended  ?  With  him  it  is  a  proposition  to  remove  one 
impediment,  merely  to  be  met  by  others,  which,  in  his 
opinion,  can  not  be  removed — to  enable  Congress  to 
do  what,  in  his  opinion,  they  ought  not  to  do  if  they 
could. 

[Here  Mr.  MEADE,  of  Virginia,  inquired  if  Mr.  L. 
understood  the  President  to  be  opposed,  on  grounds  of 
expediency,  to  any  and  every  improvement?] 

To  which  Mr.  LINCOLN  answered :  In  the  very  part 
of  his  message  of  which  I  am  now  speaking,  I  under- 
stand him  as  giving  some  vague  expressions  in  favor  of 


166        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

some  possible  objects  of  improvements ;  but,  in  doing  so, 
I  understand  him  to  be  directly  in  the  teeth  of  his  own 
arguments  in  other  parts  of  it.  Neither  the  President, 
nor  any  one,  can  possibly  specify  an  improvement  which 
shall  not  be  clearly  liable  to  one  or  another  of  the 
objections  he  has  urged  on  the  score  of  expediency.  I 
have  shown,  and  might  show  again,  that  no  work — no 
object  —  can  be  so  general  as  to  dispense  its  benefits 
with  precise  equality;  and  this  inequality  is  chief  among 
the  "portentous  consequences"  for  which  he  declares 
that  improvements  should  be  arrested.  No,  sir;  when 
the  President  intimates  that  something  in  the  way  of 
improvements  may  properly  be  done  by  the  General 
Government,  he  is  shrinking  from  the  conclusions  to 
which  his  own  arguments  would  force  him.  He  feels 
that  the  improvements  of  this  broad  and  goodly  land  are 
a  mighty  interest ;  and  he  is  unwilling  to  confess  to  the 
people,  or  perhaps  to  himself,  that  he  has  built  an  argu- 
ment, which,  when  pressed  to  its  conclusion,  entirely 
annihilates  this  interest. 

I  have  already  said  that  no  one  who  is  satisfied  of  the 
expediency  of  making  improvements,  need  be  much 
uneasy  in  his  conscience  about  its  constitutionality.  I 
wish  now  to  submit  a  few  remarks  on  the  general  prop- 
osition of  amending  the  Constitution.  As  a  general 
rule,  I  think  we  would  do  much  better  to  let  it  alone. 
No  slight  occasion  should  tempt  us  to  touch  it.  Bet- 
ter not  take  the  first  step,  which  may  lead  to  a  habit 
of  altering  it.  Better  rather  habituate  ourselves  to 
think  of  it  as  unalterable.  It  can  scarcely  be  made 
better  than  it  is.  New  provisions  would  introduce  new 
difficulties,  and  thus  create  and  increase  appetite  for  still 
further  change.  No,  sir  ;  let  it  stand  as  it  is.  New 
hands  have  never  touched  it.  The  men  who  made  it 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.        167 

have  done  their  work,  and  have  passed  away.  Who 
shall  improve  on  what  lliry  did  ? 

Mr.  Chairman,  for  the  purpose  of  reviewing  this  mes- 
sage in  the  least  possible  time,  as  well  as  for  the  sake 
of  distinctness,  I  had  analyzed  its  arguments  as  well  as 
I  could,  and  reduced  them  to  the  propositions  I  have 
stated.  I  have  now  examined  them  in  detail.  I  wish 
to  detain  the  committee  only  a  little  while  longer  with 
some  general  remarks  upon  the  subject  of  improve- 
ments. 

That  the  subject  is  a  difficult  one,  can  not  be  denied. 
Still,  it  is  no  more  difficult  in  Congress  than  in  the  State 
Legislatures,  in  the  counties,  or  in  the  smallest  munici- 
pal districts  which  anywhere  exist.  All  can  recur  to 
instances  of  this  difficulty  in  the  case  of  county  roads, 
bridges,  and  the  like.  One  man  is  offended  because  a 
road  passes  over  his  land  ;  and  another  is  offended  be- 
cause it  does  not  pass  over  his  ;  one  is  dissatisfied  because 
the  bridge,  for  which  he  is  taxed,  crosses  the  river  on  a 
different  road  from  that  which  leads  from  his  house  to 
town  ;  another  can  not  bear  that  the  county  should  get 
in  debt  for  these  same  roads  and  bridges  ;  while  not  a 
few  struggle  hard  to  have  roads  located  over  their  lands, 
and  then  stoutly  refuse  to  let  them  be  opened,  until  they 
are  first  paid  the  damages.  Even  between  the  different 
wards  and  streets  of  towns  and  cities,  we  find  this  same 
wrangling  and  difficulty.  Now,  these  are  no  other  than 
the  very  difficulties  against  which,  and  out  of  which,  the 
President  constructs  his  objections  of  "  inequality," 
"speculation,"  and  "crushing  the  treasury."  There  is 
but  a  single  alternative  about  them — they  are  sufficient, 
or  they  are  not.  If  sufficient,  they  are  sufficient  out  of 
Congress  as  well  as  in  it,  and  there  is  the  end.  We  must 
reject  them  as  insufficient,  or  lie  down  and  do  nothing 


1G8        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

by  any  authority.     Then,  difficulty  though  there  be,  let 
us  meet  and  overcome  it. 

"  Attempt  the  end,  and  never  stand  to  doubt; 
Nothing  so  hard,  but  search  will  find  it  out.' 

Determine  that  the  thing  can  and  shall  be  done,  and 
then  we  shall  find  the  way.  The  tendency  to  undue 
expansion  is  unquestionably  the  chief  difficulty.  How 
to  do  something  and  still  not  to  do  too  much,  is  the  desid- 
eratum. Let  each  contribute  his  mite  in  the  way  of  sug- 
gestion. The  late  Silas  Wright,  in  a  letter  to  the  Chicago 
Convention,  contributed  his,  which  was  worth  some- 
thing ;  and  I  now  contribute  mine,  which  may  be  worth 
nothing.  At  all  events,  it  will  mislead  nobody,  and 
therefore  will  do  no  harm.  I  would  not  borrow  money. 
I  am  against  an  overwhelming,  crushing  system.  Suppose 
that  at  each  session,  Congress  shall  determine  how  much 
money  can,  for  that  year,  be  spared  for  improvements; 
then  apportion  that  sum  to  the  most  important  objects. 
So  far  all  is  easy  ;  but  how  shall  we  determine  which  are 
the  most  important?  On  this  question  comes  the  col- 
lision of  interests,  /shall  be  slow  to  acknowldge  that 
your  harbor  or  your  river  is  more  important  than  mine, 
and  vice  versa.  To  clear  this  difficulty,  let  us  have  that 
same  statistical  information  which  tho  gentleman  from 
Ohio  [Mr.  VINTON]  suggested  at  the  beginning  of  this 
session.  In  that  information  we  shall  have  a  stern,  un- 
bending basis  of  facts — a  basis  in  nowise  subject  to  whim, 
caprice,  or  local  interest.  The  pre-limited  amount  of 
means  will  save  us  from  doing  too  much,  and  the  statis- 
tics will  save  us  from  doinsr  what  we  do, -in  icrong  places. 
Adopt  and  adhere  to  this  course,  and,  it  seems  to  me,  the 
difficulty  is  cleared. 

One   of  the  gentlemen   from   South    Carolina,   [Mr. 


XIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.        169 

KIIETT.]  very  much  deprecates  these  statistics.  He  par- 
ticularly objects,  as  I  understand  him,  to  counting  all 
the  pigs  and  chickens  in  the  land.  I  do  not  perceive 
much  force  in  the  objection.  It  is  true,  that  if  every- 
thing be  enumerated,  a  portion  of  such  statistics  may 
not  be  very  useful  to  this  object.  Such  products  of  the 
country  as  are  to  be  consumed  where  they  are  produced, 
need  no  roads  and  rivers,  no  means  of  transportation, 
and  have  no  very  proper  connection  with  this  subject. 
The  surplus,  that  which  is  produced  in  one  place  to  be 
consumed  in  another ;  the  capacity  of  each  locality  for 
producing  a  greater  surplus  ;  the  natural  means  of  trans- 
portation, and  their  susceptibility  of  improvement;  the 
hinderances,  delays,  and  losses  of  life  and  property  dur- 
ing transportation,  and  the  causes  of  each,  would  be 
among  the  most  valuable  statistics  in  this  connection. 
From  these  it  would  readily  appear  where  a  given 
amount  of  expenditure  would  do  the  most  good.  These 
statistics  might  be  equally  accessible,  as  they  would  be 
equally  useful,  to  both  the  nation  and  the  states.  In 
this  way.  and  by  these  means,  let  the  nation  take  hold 
of  the  larger  works,  and  the  states  the  smaller  ones ; 
and  thus,  working  in  a  meeting  direction,  discreetly,  but 
steadily  and  firmly,  what  is  made  unequal  in  one  place 
may  be  equalized  in  another,  extravagance  avoided,  and 
the  whole  country  put  on  that  career  of  prosperity  which 
shall  correspond  with  its  extent  of  territory,  its  natural 
resources,  and  the  intelligence  and  enterprise  of  its 
people. 

15 


SPEECH 
IN  REPLY  TO  JUDGE  DOUGLAS, 

DELIVERED    IN    REPRESENTATIVES'    HALL,    SPRINGFIELD,    ILL. 
JUNE  26,   1857. 


FELLOW-CITIZENS  :  I  am  here  to-night,  partly  by  the 
invitation  of  some  of  you,  and  partly  by  my  own  inclina- 
tion. Two  weeks  ago,  Judge  Douglas  spoke  here  on  the 
several  subjects  of  Kansas,  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  and 
Utah.  I  listened  to  the  speech  at  the  time,  and  have 
read  the  report  of  it  since.  It  was  intended  to  contro- 
vert opinions  which  I  think  just,  and  to  assail  (politi- 
cally, not  personally)  those  men  who,  in  common  with 
me,  entertain  those  opinions.  For  this  reason  I  wished 
then,  and  still  wish,  to  make  some  answer  to  it,  which  I 
now  take  the  opportunity  of  doing. 

I  begin  with  Utah.  If  it  prove  to  be  true,  as  is  prob- 
able, that  the  people  of  Utah  are  in  open  rebellion  to 
the  United  States,  then  Judge  Douglas  is  in  favor  of 
repealing  their  territorial  organization,  and  attaching 
them  to  the  adjoining  states  for  judicial  purposes.  I 
say,  too,  if  they  are  in  rebellion,  they  ought  to  be  some- 
how coerced  to  obedience  ;  and  I  am  not  now  prepared 
to  admit  or  deny  that  the  judge's  mode  of  coercing  them 
is  not  as  good  as  any.  The  Republicans  can  fall  in  with 
(170) 


LITE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.         171 

it,  without  taking  back  anything  they  have  ever  said. 
To  be  sure,  it  would  be  a  considerable  backing  down  by 
Judge  Douglas  from  his  much-vaunted  doctrine  of  self- 
government  for  the  territories  ;  but  this  is  only  addi- 
tional proof  of  what  was  very  plain  from  the  beginning, 
that  that  doctrine  was  a  mere  deceitful  pretense  for  the 
benefit  of  slavery.  Those  who  could  not  see  that  much 
in  the  Nebraska  act  itself,  which  forced  Governors,  and 
Secretaries,  and  Judges,  on  the  people  of  the  territories, 
without  their  choice  or  consent,  could  not  be  made  to 
see,  though  one  should  rise  from  the  dead. 

But  in  all  this,  it  is  very  plain  the  judge  evades  the 
only  question  the  Republicans  have  ever  pressed  upon 
the  Democracy  in  regard  to  Utah.  That  question  the 
judge  well  knew  to  be  this:  "If  the  people  of  Utah  shall 
peacefully  form  a  State  Constitution  tolerating  polyg- 
amy, will  the  Democracy  admit  them  into  the  Union  ?" 
There  is  nothing  in  the  United  States  Constitution  or 
law  against  polygamy  ;  and  why  is  it  not  a  part  of  the 
judge's  "sacred  right  of  self-government"  for  the  people 
to  have  it,  or  rather  to  keep  it,  if  they  choose?  These 
questions,  so  far  as  I  know,  the  judge  never  answers.  It 
might  involve  the  Democracy  to  answer  them  either  way, 
and  they  go  unanswered. 

As  to  Kansas.  The  substance  of  the  judge's  speech 
on  Kansas  is  an  effort  to  put  the  Free  State  men  in  the 
wrong  for  not  voting  at  the  election  of  delegates  to  the 
Constitutional  Convention.  He  says  : 

"There  is  every  reason  to  hope  and  believe  that  the  law  will 
be  fairly  interpreted  and  impartially  executed,  so  as  to  insure  to 
every  bona  fide  inhabitant  the  free  and  quiet  exercise  of  the  elect- 
ive franchise." 

It  appears  extraordinary  that  Judge  Douglas  should 


172        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

make  such  a  statement.  He  knows  that,  by  the  law, 
no  one  can  vote  who  has  not  been  registered  ;  and  he 
knows  that  the  Free  State  men  place  their  refusal  to 
vote  on  the  ground  that  but  few  of  them  have  been  reg- 
istered. It  is  possible  this  is  not  true,  but  Judge  Doug- 
las knows  it  is  asserted  to  be  true  in  letters,  newspapers, 
and  public  speeches,  and  borne  by  every  mail,  and  blown 
by  every  breeze  to  the  eyes  and  ears  of  the  world.  He 
knows  it  is  boldly  declared  that  the  people  of  many 
whole  counties,  and  many  whole  neighborhoods  in  oth- 
ers, are  left  unregistered ;  yet,  he  does  not  venture  to 
contradict  the  declaration,  or  to  point  out  how  they  can 
vote  without  being  registered  ;  but  he  just  slips  along, 
not  seeming  to  know  there  is  any  such  question  of  fact, 
and  complacently  declares  : 

"There  is  every  reason  to  hope  and  believe  that  the  law  will 
be  fairly  interpreted  and  impartially  executed,  so  as  to  insure  to 
every  bona  fide  inhabitant  the  free  and  quiet  exercise  of  the  elect- 
ive franchise." 

I  readily  agree  that  if  all  had  a  chance  to  vote,  they 
ought  to  have  voted.  If,  on  the  contrary,  as  they  allege, 
and  Judge  Douglas  ventures  not  to  particularly  contra- 
dict, few  only  of  the  Free  State  men  had  a  chance  to 
vote,  they  were  perfectly  right  in  staying  from  the  polls 
in  a  body. 

By  the  way,  since  the  judge  spoke,  the  Kansas  election 
has  come  off.  The  judge  expressed  his  confidence  that 
all  the  Democrats  in  Kansas  would  do  their  duty — in- 
cluding "Free  State  Democrats"  of  course.  The  returns 
received  here,  as  yet,  are  very  incomplete  ;  but  so  far  as 
they  go,  they  indicate  that  only  about  one-sixth  of  the 
registered  voters,  have  really  voted ;  and  this,  too,  when 
not  more,  perhaps,  than  one-half  of  the  rightful  voters 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        173 

have  been  registered,  thus  showing  the  thing  to  have 
been  altogether  the  most  exquisite  farce  ever  enacted.  I 
am  watching,  with  considerable  interest,  to  ascertain  what 
figure  "the  Free  State  Democrats"  cut  in  the  concern. 
Of  course  they  voted — all  Democrats  do  their  duty — and 
of  course  they  did  not  vote  for  Slave  State  candidates. 
We  soon  shall  know  how  many  delegates  they  elected, 
how  many  candidates  they  had  pledged  to  a  free  state, 
and  how  many  votes  were  cast  for  them. 

Allow  me  to  barely  whisper  my  suspicion  that  there 
were  no  such  things  in  Kansas  as  "Free  State  Demo- 
crats"— that  they  were  altogether  mythical,  good  only 
to  figure  in  newspapers  and  speeches  in  the  free  states. 
If  there  should  prove  to  be  one  real  living  Free  State 
Democrat  in  Kansas,  I  suggest  that  it  might  be  well  to 
catch  him,  and  stuff  and  preserve  his  skin  as  an  interest- 
ing specimen  of  that  soon  to  be  extinct  variety  of  the 
genus  Democrat. 

And  now  as  to  the  Dred  Scott  decision.  That  decision 
declares  two  propositions — first,  that  a  negro  can  not  sue 
.in  the  United  States  Courts;  and  secondly,  that  Congress 
can  not  prohibit  slavery  in  the  territories.  It  was  made 
by  a  divided  court — dividing  differently  on  the  different 
points.  Judge  Douglas  does  not  discuss  the  merits  of 
the  decision  ;  and,  in  that  respect,  I  shall  follow  his  ex- 
ample, believing  I  could  no  more  improve  on  McLean 
and  Curtis,  than  he  could  on  Taney. 

He  denounces  all  who  question  the  correctness  of  that 
decision,  as  offering  violent  resistance  to  it.  But  who 
resists  it?  Who  has,  in  spite  of  the  decision,  declared 
Dred  Scott  free,  and  resisted  the  authority  of  his  master 
over  him  ? 

Judicial  decisions  have  two  uses — first,  to  absolutely 
determine  the  case  decided ;  and  secondly,  to  indicate  to 


174        LIFE  AXD  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLW. 

the  public  how  other  similar  cases  will  be  decided  when 
they  arise.  For  the  latter  use,  they  are  called  "prece- 
dents" and  "authorities." 

We  believe  as  much  as  Judge  Douglas  (perhaps  more) 
in  obedience  to,  and  respect  for,  the  judicial  department 
of  governor.  We  think  its  decisions  on  Constitutional 
questions,  when  fully  settled,  should  control,  not  only 
the  particular  cases  decided,  but  the  general  policy  of 
the  country,  subject  to  be  disturbed  only  by  amendments 
of  the  Constitution  as  provided  in  that  instrument  itself. 
More  than  this  would  be  revolution.  But  we  think  the 
Dred  Scott  decision  is  erroneous.  We  know  the  court 
that  made  it  has  often  overruled  its  own  decisions,  and 
we  shall  do  what  we  can  to  have  it  overrule  this.  We 
offer  no  resistance  to  it. 

Judicial  decisions  are  of  greater  or  less  authority  as 
precedents,  according  to  circumstances.  That  this  should 
be  so,  accords  both  with  common  sense,  and  the  custom- 
ary understanding  of  the  legal  profession. 

If  this  important  decision  had  been  made  by  the  unan- 
imous concurrence  of  the  judges,  and  without  any  appa- 
rent partisan  bias,  and  in  accordance  with  legal  public 
expectation,  and  with  the  steady  practice  of  the  depart- 
ments throughout  our  history,  and  had  been,  in  no  part, 
based  on  assumed  historical  facts  which  are  not  really 
true  ;  or,  if  wanting  in  some  of  these,  it  had  been  before 
the  court  more  than  once,  and  had  there  been  affirmed 
and  reaffirnied  through  a  course  of  years,  it  then  might 
be,  perhaps  would  be,  factious,  nay,  even  revolutionary, 
not  to  acquiesce  in  it  as  a  precedent. 

But  when,  as  it  is  true,  we  find  it  wanting  in  all  these 
claims  to  the  public  confidence,  it  is  not  resistance,  it  is 
not  factious,  it  is  not  even  disrespectful,  to  treat  it  as 
not  having  yet  quite  established  a  settled  doctrine  for 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        175 

the  country.      But  Judge  Douglas  considers  this  view 
awful.     Hear  him : 

"  The  courts  are  the  tribunals  prescribed  by  the  Constitution 
and  created  by  the  authority  of  the  people  to  determine,  expound, 
and  enforce  the  law.  Hence,  whoever  resists  the  final  decision 
of  the  highest  judicial  tribunal,  aims  a  deadly  blow  to  our  whole 
Republican  system  of  government — a  blow,  which,  if  successful, 
would  place  all  our  rights  and  liberties  at  the  mercy  of  passion, 
anarchy,  and  violence.  I  repeat,  therefore,  that  if  resistance  to 
the  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  in  a 
matter  like  the  points  decided  in  the  Dred  Scott  case,  clearly 
within  their  jurisdiction  as  denned  by  the  Constitution,  shall  be 
forced  upon  the  country  ns  a  political  issue,  it  will  become  a  dis- 
tinct and  naked  issue  between  the  friends  and  enemies  of  the 
Constitution — the  friends  and  the  enemies  of  the  supremacy  of 
the  laws." 

Why,  this  same  Supreme  Court  once  decided  a  na- 
tional bank  to  be  constitutional ;  but  General  Jackson,  as 
President  of  the  United  States,  disregarded  the  decision, 
and  vetoed  a  bill  for  a  re-charter,  partly  on  constitu- 
tional ground,  declaring  that  each  public  functionary 
must  support  the  Constitution,  "as  he  understands  it." 
But  hear  the  general's  own  words.  Here  they  are, 
taken  from  his  veto  message  : 

"  It  is  maintained  by  the  advocates  of  the  bank,  that  its  con- 
stitutionality, in  all  its  features,  ought  to  be  considered  as  settled 
by  precedent,  and  by  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court.  To  this 
conclusion  I  can  not  assent.  Mere  precedent  is  a  dangerous 
source  of  authority,  and  should  not  be  regarded  as  deciding  ques- 
tions of  constitutional  power,  except  where  the  acquiescence  of  the 
people  and  the  States  can  be  considered  as  well  settled.  So  far 
from  this  being  the  case  on  this  subject,  an  argument  against  the 
bank  might  be  based  on  precedent.  One  Congress  in  1791,  de- 
cided in  favor  of  a  bank;  another  in  1811,  decided  against  it. 
One  Congress  in  1815  decided  against  a  bank ;  another,  in  1816, 


176        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

decided  in  its  favor.  Prior  to  the  present  Congress,  therefore,  the 
precedents  drawn  from  that  source  were  equal.  If  we  resort  to 
the  states,  the  expressions  of  legislative,  judicial,  and  executive 
opinions  against  the  bank  have  been  probably  to  those  in  its 
favor  as  four  to  one.  There  is  nothing  in  precedent,  therefore, 
•which,  if  its  authority  were  admitted,  ought  to  weigh  in  favor  of 
the  act  before  me." 

I  drop  the  quotation  merely  to  remark,  that  all  there 
ever  was,  in  the  way  of  precedent  up  to  the  Dred  Scott 
decision,  on  the  points  therein  decided,  had  been  against 
that  decision.  But  hear  General  Jackson  further : 

"If  the  opinion  of  the  Supreme  Court  covered  the  whole  ground 
of  this  act,  it  ought  not  to  control  the  co-ordinate  authorities  of 
this  Government.  The  Congress,  the  Executive,  and  the  Court, 
must  each  for  itself  be  guided  by  its  own  opinion  of  the  Consti- 
tution. Each  public  officer,  who  takes  an  oath  to  support  the 
Constitution,  swears  that  he  will  support  it  as  he  understands  it, 
and  not  as  it  is  understood  by  others." 

Again  and  again  have  I  heard  Judge  Douglas  denounce 
that  bank  decision,  and  applaud  General  Jackson  for  dis- 
regarding it.  It  would  be  interesting  for  him  to  look  over 
his  recent  speech,  and  see  how  exactly  his  fierce  philip- 
ics  against  us,  for  resisting  Supreme  Court  decisions,  fall 
upon  his  own  head.  It  will  call  to  mind  a  long  and 
fierce  political  war  in  this  country,  upon  an  issue  which, 
in  his  own  language,  and,  of  course,  in  his  own  change- 
less estimation,  was  "a  distinct  issue  between  the  friends 
and  the  enemies  of  the  Constitution,"  and  in  which  war 
he  fought  in  the  ranks  of  the  enemies  of  the  Constitu- 
tion. 

I  have  said,  in  substance,  that  the  Dred  Scott  deci- 
sion was,  in  part,  based  on  assumed  historical  facts 
which  were  not  really  true,  and  I  ought  not  to  leave  the 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.       177 

subject  without  giving  some  reasons  for  saying  this;  I 
therefore  give  an  instance  or  two,  which  I  think  fully 
sustain  me.  Chief  Justice  Taney,  in  delivering  the 
opinion  of  the  majority  of  the  Court,  insists  at  great 
length  that  negroes  were  no  part  of  the  people  who 
made,  or  for  whom  was  made,  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, or  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

On  the  contrary,  Judge  Curtis,  in  his  dissenting  opin- 
ion, shows  that  in  five  of  the  then  thirteen  states,  to  wit: 
New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts,  New  York,  New  Jersey, 
and  North  Carolina,  free  negroes  were  voters,  and,  in 
proportion  to  their  numbers,  had  the  same  part  in  mak- 
ing the  Constitution  that  the  white  people  had.  He 
shows  this  with  so  much  particularity  as  to  leave  no 
doubt  of  its  truth  ;  and  as  a  sort  of  conclusion  on  that 
point,  holds  the  following  language : 

"  The  Constitution  was  ordained  and  established  by  the  people 
of  the  United  States,  through  the  action,  in  each  state,  of  those 
persons  who  were  qualified  by  its  laws  to  act  thereon  in  behalf 
of  themselves  and  all  other  citizens  of  the  state.  In  some  of 
the  states,  as  we  have  seen,  colored  persons  were  among  those 
qualified  by  law  to  act  on  the  subject.  These  colored  persons 
were  not  only  included  in  the  body  of  'the  people  of  the  United 
States,'  by  whom  the  Constitution  was  ordained  and  established, 
but  in  at  least  five  of  the  states,  they  had  the  power  to  act,  and, 
doubtless,  did  act,  by  their  suffrages,  upon  the  question  of  its 
adoption." 

Again,  Chief  Justice  Taney  says  : 

"It  is  difficult,  at  this  day,  to  realize  the  state  of  public  opin- 
ion in  relation  to  that  unfortunate  race,  which  prevailed  in  the 
civilized  and  enlightened  portions  of  the  world  at  the  time  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  when  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  was  framed  and  adopted." 


178        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

And  again,  after  quoting  from  the  Declaration,  he  says: 

"The  general  words  above  quoted  would  seem  to  include  the 
whole  human  family,  and  if  they  were  used  in  a  similar  instru- 
ment at  this  day,  would  be  so  understood." 

In  these  the  Chief  Justice  does  not  directly  assert, 
but  plainly  assumes,  as  a  fact,  that  the  public  estimate 
of  the  black  man  is  more  favorable  now  than  it  was  in 
the  days  of  the  Revolution.  This  assumption  is  a  mis- 
take. In  some  trifling  particulars,  the  condition  of  that 
race  has  been  ameliorated ;  but,  as  a  whole,  in  this  coun- 
try, the  change  between  then  and  now  is  decidedly  the 
other  way  ;  and  their  ultimate  destiny  has  never  ap- 
peared so  hopeless  as  in  the  last  three  or  four  years. 
In  two  of  the  five  states — New  Jersey  and  North  Caro- 
lina— that  then  gave  the  free  negro  the  right  of  voting, 
the  right  has  since  been  taken  away ;  and  in  a  third — 
New  York — it  has  been  greatly  abridged;  while  it  has 
not  been  extended,  so  far  as  I  know,  to  a  single  addi- 
tional state,  though  the  number  of  the  states  has  more 
than  doubled.  In  those  days,  as  I  understand,  masters 
could,  at  their  own  pleasure,  emancipate  their  slaves  ; 
but  since  then,  such  legal  restraints  have  been  made 
upon  emancipation,  as  to  amount  almost  to  prohibition. 
In  those  days,  Legislatures  held  the  unquestioned  power 
to  abolish  slavery  in  their  respective  states;  but  now  it 
is  becoming  quite  fashionable  for  State  Constitutions  to 
withhold  that  power  from  the  Legislatures.  In  those 
days,  by  common  consent,  the  spread  of  the  black  man's 
bondage  to  the  new  countries  was  prohibited,  but  now, 
Congress  decides  that  it  will  not  continue  the  prohibi- 
tion ;  and  the  Supreme  Court  decides  that  it  could  not 
if  it  would.  In  those  days,  our  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence was  held  sacred  by  all,  and  thought  to  include 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        179 

all ;  but  now,  to  aid  in  making  the  bondage  of  the  negro 
universal  and  eternal,  it  is  assailed,  and  sneered  at,  and 
construed,  and  hawked  at,  and  torn,  till,  if  its  framers 
could  rise  from  their  graves,  they  could  not  at  all  rec- 
ognize it.  All  the  powers  of  earth  seem  rapidly  com- 
bining against  him.  Mammon  is  after  him,  ambition 
follows,  philosophy  follows,  and  the  theology  of  the  day 
is  fast  joining  the  cry.  They  have  him  in  his  prison 
house  ;  they  have  searched  his  person,  and  left  no  pry- 
ing instrument  with  him.  One  after  another  they  have 
closed  the  heavy  iron  doors  upon  him  ;  and  now  they 
have  him,  as  it  were,  bolted  in  with  a  lock  of  a  hundred 
keys,  which  can  never  be  unlocked  without  the  concur- 
rence of  every  key ;  the  keys  in  the  hands  of  a  hundred 
different  men,  and  they  scattered  to  a  hundred  different 
and  distant  places ;  and  they  stand  musing  as  to  what 
invention,  in  all  the  dominions  of  mind  and  matter,  can 
be  produced  to  make  the  impossibility  of  his  escape  more 
complete  than  it  is. 

It  is  grossly  incorrect  to  say  or  assume  that  the  pub- 
lic estimate  of  the  negro  is  more  favorable  now  than  it 
was  at  the  origin  of  the  Government. 

Three  years  and  a  half  ago,  Judge  Douglas  brought 
forward  his  famous  Nebraska  bill.  The  country  was  at 
once  in  a  blaze.  He  scorned  all  opposition,  and  carried 
it  through  Congress.  Since  then  he  has  seen  himself 
superseded  in  a  Presidential  nomination,  by  one  indors- 
ing the  general  doctrine  of  his  measure,  but  at  the  same 
time  standing  clear  of  the  odium  of  its  untimely  agita- 
tion, and  its  gross  breach  of  national  faith;  and  he  has 
seen  that  successful  rival  constitutionally  elected,  not  by 
strength  of  friends,  but  by  the  division  of  adversaries, 
being  in  a  popular  minority  of  nearly  four  hundred 
thousand  votes.  He  has  seen  his  chief  aids  in  his  own 


180      LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

state,  Shields  and  Richardson,  politically  speaking,  suc- 
cessively tried,  convicted,  and  executed,  for  an  offense 
not  their  own,  but  his.  And  now  he  sees  his  own  case, 
standing  next  on  the  docket  for  trial. 

There  is  a  natural  disgust  in  the  minds  of  nearly  all 
white  people,  to  the  idea  of  an  indiscriminate  amalgama- 
tion of  the  white  and  black  races;  and  Judge  Douglas 
evidently  is  basing  his  chief  hope  upon  the  chances  of 
his  being  able  to  appropriate  the  benefit  of  this  disgust 
to  himself.  If  he  can,  by  much  drumming  and  repeat- 
ing, fasten  the  odium  of  that  idea  upon  his  adversaries, 
he  thinks  he  can  struggle  through  the  storm.  He  there- 
fore clings  to  this  hope,  as  a  drowning  man  to  the  last 
plank.  He  makes  an  occasion  for  lugging  it  in  from  the 
opposition  to  the  Dred  Scott  decision.  He  finds  the 
Republicans  insisting  that  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence includes  ALL  men,  black  as  well  as  white,  and 
forthwith  he  boldly  denies  that  it  includes  negroes  at 
all,  and  proceeds  to  argue  gravely  that  all  who  contend 
it  does,  do  so  only  because  they  want  to  vote,  and  eat, 
and  sleep,  and  marry  with  negroes  !  He  will  have  it 
that  they  can  not  be  consistent  else.  Now  I  protest 
against  the  counterfeit  logic  which  concludes  that,  be- 
cause I  do  not  want  a  black  woman  for  a  slave  I  must 
necessarily  want  her  for  a  wife.  I  need  not  have  her  for 
either.  I  can  just  leave  her  alone.  In  some  respects, 
she  certainly  is  not  my  equal ;  but  in  her  natural  right 
to  eat  the  bread  she  earns  with  her  own  hands  without 
asking  leave  of  any  one  else,  she  is  my  equal,  and  the 
equal  of  all  others. 

Chief  Justice  Taney,  in  his  opinion  in  the  Dred  Scott 
case,  admits  that  the  language  of  the  Declaration  is  broad 
enough  to  include  the  whole  human  family,  but  he  and 
Judge  Douglas  argue  that  the  authors  of  that  instrument 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        181 

did  not  intend  to  include  negroes,  by  the  fact  that  they 
did  not  at  once  actually  place  them  on  an  equality  with 
the  whites.  Now  this  grave  argument  comes  to  just 
nothing  at  all,  by  the  other  fact,  that  they  did  not  at 
once,  or  ever  afterward,  actually  place  all  white  people 
on  an  equality  with  one  another.  And  this  is  the  staple 
argument  of  both  the  Chief  Justice  and  the  Senator,  for 
doing  this  obvious  violence  to  the  plain,  unmistakable 
language  of  the  Declaration. 

I  think  the  authors  of  that  notable  instrument  intend- 
ed to  include  all  men,  but  they  did  not  intend  to  declare 
all  men  equal  in  all  respects.  They  did  not  mean  to  say 
all  were  equal  in  color,  size,  intellect,  moral  develop- 
ments, or  social  capacity.  They  defined  with  tolerable 
distinctness,  in  what  respects  they  did  consider  all  men 
created  equal — equal  with  "certain  inalienable  rights, 
among  which  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happi- 
ness." This  they  said,  and  this  they  meant.  They  did 
not  mean  to  assert  the  obvious  untruth,  that  all  were 
then  actually  enjoying  that  equali'ty,  nor  yet  that  they 
were  about  to  confer  it  immediately  upon  them.  In  fact, 
they  had  no  power  to  confer  such  a  boon.  They  meant 
simply  to  declare  the  right,  so  that  the  enforcement  of  it 
might  follow  as  fast  as  circumstances  should  permit. 

They  meant  to  set  up  a  standard  maxim  for  free  socie- 
ty, which  should  be  familiar  to  all,  and  revered  by  all ; 
constantly  looked  to,  constantly  labored  for,  and  even 
though  never  perfectly  attained,  constantly  approxima- 
ted, and  thereby  constantly  spreading  and  deepening  its 
influence  and  augmenting  the  happiness  and  value  of  life 
to  all  people  of  all  colors  everywhere.  The  assertion 
that  "  all  men  are  created  equal,"  was  of  no  practical 
use  in  effecting  our  separation  from  Great  Britain;  and  it 
was  placed  iu  the  Declaration,  not  for  that,  but  for  future 


182       LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

use.  Its  authors  meant  it  to  be  as,  thank  God,  it  is  now 
proving  itself,  a  stumbling-block  to  all  those  who,  in 
after  times,  might  seek  to  turn  a  free  people  back  into 
the  hateful  paths  of  despotism.  They  knew  the  prone- 
ness  of  prosperity  to  breed  tyrants,  and  they  meant  when 
such  should  reappear  in  this  fair  land  and  commence 
their  vocation,  they  should  find  left  for  them  at  least  one 
hard  nut  to  crack. 

I  have  now  briefly  expressed  my  view  of  the  meaning 
and  object  of  that  part  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence which  declares  that  "all  men  are  created  equal." 

Now  let  us  hear  Judge  Douglas's  view  of  the  same 
subject,  as  I  find  it  in  the  printed  report  of  his  late 
speech.  Here  it  is  : 

"No  man  can  vindicate  the  character,  motives,  and  conduct  of 
the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  except  upon  the 
hypothesis  that  they  referred  to  the  white  race  alone,  and  not  to 
the  African,  when  they  declared  all  men  to  have  been  created 
equal— that  they  were  speaking  of  British  subjects  on  this  conti- 
nent being  equal  to  British  subjects  born  and  residing  in  Great 
Britain — that  they  were  entitled  to  the  same  inalienable  rights, 
and  among  them  were  enumerated  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness.  The  Declaration  was  adopted  for  the  purpose  of  justi- 
fying the  colonists  in  the  eyes  of  the  civilized  world  in.  withdraw- 
ing their  allegiance  from  the  British  crown  and  dissolving  their 
connection  with  the  mother  country." 

My  good  friends,  read  that  carefully  over  some  leisure 
hour,  and  ponder  well  upon  it — see  what  a  mere  wreck 
— mangled  ruin,  it  makes  of  our  once  glorious  Declara- 
tion. 

"  They  were  speaking  of  British  subjects  on  this  con- 
tinent being  equal  to  British  subjects  born  and  residing 
in  Great  Britain  !"  Why,  according  to  this,  not  only 
negroes,  but  white  people  outside  of  Great  Britain  and 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        183 

America  were  not  spoken  of  in  that  instrument.  The 
English,  Irish,  and  Scotch,  along  with  white  Americans, 
were  included  to  be  sure,  but  the  French,  Germans,  and 
other  white  people  of  the  world  are  all  gone  to  pot  along 
with  the  judge's  inferior  races. 

I  had  thought  the  Declaration  promised  something 
better  than  the  condition  of  British  subjects;  but  no,  it 
only  meant  that  we  should  be  equal  to  them  in  their  own 
oppressed  and  unequal  condition.  According  to  that,  it 
gave  no  promise  that,  having  kicked  off  the  king  and 
lords  of  Great  Britain,  we  should  not  at  once  be  saddled 
with  a  king  and  lords  of  our  own. 

I  had  thought  the  Declaration  contemplated  the  pro- 
gressive improvement  in  the  condition  of  all  men  every- 
where;  but  no,  it  merely  "was  adopted  for  the  purpose 
of  justifying  the  colonists  in  the  eyes  of  the  civilized 
world  in  withdrawing  their  allegiance  from  the  British 
crown,  and  dissolving  their  connection  with  the  mother 
country."  Why,  that  object  having  been  effected  some 
eighty  years  ago,  the  Declaration  is  of  no  practical  use 
now — mere  rubbish — old  wadding  left  to  rot  on  the  bat- 
tle-field after  the  victory  is  won. 

I  understand  you  are  preparing  to  celebrate  the 
"  Fourth  "  to-morrow  week.  What  for?  The  doings  of 
that  day  had  no  reference  to  the  present;  and  quite  half 
of  you  are  not  even  descendants  of  those  who  were  re- 
ferred to  at  that  day.  But  I  suppose  you  will  celebrate; 
and  will  even  go  so  far  as  to  read  the  Declaration.  Sup- 
pose, after  you  read  it  once  in  the  old  fashioned  way,  you 
read  it  once  more  with  Judge  Douglas's  version.  It  will 
then  run  thus  :  "We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident 
that  all  British  subjects  who  were  on  this  continent 
eighty-one  years  ago,  were  created  equal  to  all  British 
subjects  born  and  then  residing  in  Great  Britain." 


184       LIFE  AND   SPEECHES   OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

And  now  I  appeal  to  all — to  Democrats  as  well  as 
others — are  you  really  willing  that  the  Declaration  shall 
thus  be  frittered  away  ? — thus  left  no  more  at  most  than 
an  interesting  memorial  of  the  dead  past? — thus  shorn 
of  its  vitality  and  practical  value,  and  left  without  the 
germ  or  even  the  suggestion  of  the  individual  rights  of 
man  in  it  ? 

But  Judge  Douglas  is  especially  horrified  at  the 
thought  of  the  mixing  blood  by  the  white  and  black 
races.  Agreed  for  once  —  a  thousand  times  agreed. 
There  are  white  men  enough  to  marry  all  the  white 
women,  and  black  men  enough  to  marry  all  the  black 
•women  ;  and  so  let  them  be  married.  On  this  point,  we 
fully  agree  with  the  judge ;  and  when  he  shall  show  that 
his  policy  is  better  adapted  to  prevent  amalgamation 
than  ours,  we  shall  drop  ours  and  adopt  his.  Let  us  see. 
In  1850,  there  were  in  the  United  States,  405,751  mulat- 
toes.  Very  few  of  these  are  the  offspring  of  whites  and 
free  blacks  ;  nearly  all  have  sprung  from  black  slaves 
and  white  masters.  A  separation  of  the  races  is  the 
only  perfect  preventive  of  amalgamation,  but  as  an  imme- 
diate separation  is  impossible,  the  next  best  thing  is  to 
keep  them  apart  where  they  are  not  already  together.  If 
white  and  black  people  never  get  together  in  Kansas, 
they  will  never  mix  blood  in  Kansas.  That  is  at  least 
one  self-evident  truth.  A  few  free  colored  persons  may 
get  into  the  free  states,  in  any  event;  but  their  number 
is  too  insignificant  to  amount  to  much  in  the  way  of 
mixing  blood.  In  1850,  there  were  in  the  free  states, 
56,649  mulattoes;  but  for  the  most  part  they  were  not 
born  there — they  came  from  the  slave  states,  ready  made 
up.  In  the  same  year  the  slave  states  had  348,874  mu- 
lattoes, all  of  home  production.  The  proportion  of  free 
mulattoes  to  free  blacks — the  only  colored  classes  in  the 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        185 

free  states — is  much  greater  in  the  slave  than  in  the  free 
states.  It  is  worthy  of  note,  too,  that  among  the  free 
states  those  which  make  the  colored  man  the  nearest 
equal  to  the  white,  have  proportionably  the  fewest  mu- 
lattoes, the  least  of  amalgamation.  In  New  Hampshire, 
the  state  which  goes  farthest  toward  equality  between 
the  races,  there  are  just  184  mulattoes,  while  there  are 
in  Virginia — how  many  do  you  think  ? — 79,775,  being 
23,126  more  than  in  all  the  free  states  together. 

These  statistics  show  that,  slavery  is  the  greatest  source 
of  amalgamation,  and  next  to  it,  not  the  elevation,  but 
the  degradation  of  free  blacks.  Yet  Judge  Douglag 
dreads  the  slightest  restraints  on  the  spread  of  slavery, 
and  the  slightest  human  recognition  of  the  negro,  as 
tending  horribly  to  amalgamation. 

The  very  Dred  Scott  case  affords  a  strong  test  as  to 
which  party  most  favors  amalgamation,  the  Republicans 
or  the  dear  Union-saving  Democracy?  Dred  Scott,  his 
wife,  and  two  daughters  were  all  involved  in  the  suit.  Wo 
desired  the  court  to  have  held  that  they  were  citizens  so 
far  at  least  as  to  entitle  them  to  a  hearing  as  to  whether 
they  were  free  or  not ;  and  then,  also,  that  they  were  in 
fact  and  in  law  really  free.  Could  we  have  had  out 
way,  the  chances  of  these  black  girls  ever  mixing  their 
blood  with  that  of  white  people,  would  have  been  di- 
minished at  least  to  the  extent  that  it  could  not  have 
been  without  their  consent.  But  Judge  Douglas  is 
delighted  to  have  them  decided  to  be  slaves,  and  not 
human  enough  to  have  a  hearing,  even  if  they  were 
free,  and  thus  left  subject  to  the  forced  concubinage  of 
their  masters,  and  liable  to  become  the  mothers  of  mu- 
lattoes in  spite  of  themselves — the  very  state  of  case  that 
produces  nine-tenths  of  all  the  mulattoes — all  the  mix- 
ing of  blood  in  the  nation. 
If 


185       LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

Of  course,  I  state  this  case  as  an  illustration  only,  not 
meaning  to  say  or  intimate  that  the  master  of  Dred  Scott 
and  his  family,  or  any  more  than  a  per  centage  of  mas- 
ters generally,  are  inclined  to  exercise  this  particular 
power  which  they  hold  over  their  female  slaves. 

I  have  said  that  the  separation  of  the  races  is  the  only 
perfect  preventive  of  amalgamation.  I  have  no  right  to1 
say  all  the  members  of  the  Republican  party  are  in  favor 
of  this,  nor  to  say  that  as  a  party  they  are  in  favor  of 
it.  There  is  nothing  in  their  platform  directly  on  the 
subject.  But  I  can  say,  a  very  large  proportion  of  its 
members  are  for  it,  and  that  the  chief  plank  in  their 
platform — opposition  to  the  spread  of  slavery — is  most 
favorable  to  that  separation.- 

Such  separation,  if  ever  effected  at  all,  must  be  effected 
by  colonization  ;  and  no  political  party,  as  such,  is  now 
doing  anything  directly  for  colonization.  Party  opera- 
tions, at  present,  only  favor  or  retard  colonization  inci- 
dentally. The  enterprise  is  a  difficult  one;  but  "where 
there  is  a  will  there  is  a  way;"  and  what  colonization 
needs  most  is  a  hearty  will.  Will  springs  from  the  two 
elements  of  moral  sense  and  self-interest.  Let  us  be 
brought  to  believe  it  is  morally  right,  and,  at  the  same, 
time,  favorable  to,  or,  at  least,  not  against,  our  interest, 
to  transfer  the  African  to  his  native  clime,  and  we  shall 
find  a  way  to  do  it,  however  great  the  task  may  be. 
The  children  of  Israel,  to  such  numbers  as  to  include 
four  hundred  thousand  fighting  men,  went  out  of  Egyp- 
tian bondage  in  a  body. 

How  differently  the  respective  courses  of  the  Demo- 
cratic and  Republican  parties  incidentally  bear  on  the 
question  of  forming  a  will — a  public  sentiment — for  col- 
onization, is  easy  to  see.  The  Republicans  inculcate, 
with  whatever  of  ability  they  can,  that  the  negro  is  a 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHEvS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        187 

man  ;  that  his  bondage  is  cruelly  wrong,  and  that  the 
field  of  his  oppression  ought'  not  to  be  enlarged.  The 
Democrats  deny  his  manhood  ;  deny,  or  dwarf  to  insig- 
nificance, the  wrong  of  his  bondage  ;  so  far  as  possible, 
crush  all  sympathy  for  him,  and  cultivate  and  excite 
hatred  and  disgust  against  him;  compliment  themselves 
as  Union-savers  for  doing  so  ;  and  call  the  indefinite 
outspreading  of  his  bondage  "  a  sacred  right  of  self- 
government." 

The  plainest  print  can  not  be  read  through  a  gold 
eagle ;  and  it  will  be  ever  hard  to  find  many  men  who 
will  send  a  slave  to  Liberia,  and  pay  his  passage,  while 
they  can  send  him  to  a  new  country — Kansas,  for  in- 
stance— and  sell  him  for  fifteen  hundred  dollars,  and 
the  rise. 


SPEECH 

DELIVERED  AT  COOPER  INSTITUTE,  FEBRUARY  27,  1860. 


MR.  PRESIDENT  and  FELLOW-CITIZENS  of  New  York : 
The  facts  with  which  I  shall  deal  this  evening  are 
mainly  old  and  familiar  ;  nor  is  there  anything  new  in 
the  general  use  I  shall  make  of  them.  If  there  shall 
be  any  novelty,  it  will  be  in  the  mode  of  presenting 
the  facts,  and  the  references  and  observations  following 
that  presentation. 

In  his  speech  last  autumn,  at  Columbus,  Ohio,  as 
reported  in  the  New  York  Times,  Senator  Douglas  said : 

"Our  fathers,  when  they  framed  the  government  under  which 
we  live,  understood  this  question  just  as  well,  and  even  better  than 
•we  do  now." 

I  fully  indorse  this,  and  I  adopt  it  as  a  text  for  this 
discourse.  I  so  adopt  it  because  it  furnishes  a  precise 
and  an  agreed  starting-point  for  a  discussion  between 
Republicans  and  that  wing  of  the  democracy  headed  by 
Senator  Douglas.  It  simply  leaves  the  inquiry:  "What 
was  the  understanding  those  fathers  had  of  the  question 
mentioned  ?" 

What  is  the  frame  of  government  under  which  we 
live? 

The  answer  must  be  :  "The  Constitution  of  the  United 
(188) 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.       189 

States."  That  Constitution  consists  of  the  original, 
framed  in  1787,  (and  under  which  the  present  govern- 
ment first  went  into  operation,)  and  twelve  subsequently 
framed  amendments,  the  first  ten  of  which  were  framed 
in  1789. 

Who  were  our  fathers  that  framed  the  Constitution  ? 
I  suppose  the  "  thirty-nine "  who  signed  the  original 
instrument  may  be  fairly  called  our  fathers  who  framed 
that  part  of  our  present  government.  It  is  almost 
exactly  true  to  say  they  framed  it,  and  it  is  altogether 
true  to  say  they  fairly  represented  the  opinion  and 
sentiment  of  the  whole  nation  at  that  time.  Their 
names,  being  familiar  to  nearly  all,  and  accessible  to 
quite  all,  need  not  now  be  repeated. 

I  take  these  "thirty-nine,"  for  the  present,  as  being 
"  our  fathers  who  framed  the  government  under  which 
we  live." 

What  is  the  question  which,  according  to  the  text, 
those  fathers  understood  just  as  well  and  even  better 
than  we  do  now  ? 

It  is  this :  Does  the  proper  division  of  local  from 
Federal  authority,  or  anything  in  the  Constitution,  forbid 
our  Federal  Government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in  our 
Federal  territories  ? 

Upon  this  Douglas  holds  the  affirmative,  and  Republi- 
cans the  negative.  This  affirmative  and  denial  form  an 
issue;  and  this  issue — this  question — is  precisely  what 
the  text  declares  our  fathers  understood  better  than  we. 

Let  us  now  inquire  whether  the  "thirty-nine"  or  any 
of  them  ever  acted  upon  this  question  ;  and  if  they  did, 
how  they  acted  upon  it — how  they  expressed  that  better 
understanding. 

In  1784 — three  years  before  the  Constitution — the 
United  States  then  owning  the  North-western  Territory, 


190       LIFE    AND    SPEECHES    OP   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

and  no  other — the  Congress  of  the  Confederation  had 
before  them  the  question  of  prohibiting  slavery  in  that 
territory;  and  four  of  the  "thirty-nine"  who  afterward 
framed  the  Constitution  were  in  that  Congress,  and  voted 
on  that  question.  Of  these,  Roger  Sherman,  Thomas 
Mifflin  and  Hugh  Williamson  voted  for  the  prohibition 
— thus  showing  that,  in  their  understanding,  no  line 
dividing  local  from  Federal  authority,  nor  anything  else, 
properly  forbade  the  Federal  Government  to  control  as  to 
slavery  in  Federal  territory.  The  other  of  the  four- 
James  McHenry — voted  against  the  prohibition,  showing 
that,  for  some  cause,  he  thought  it  improper  to  vote  for 
it. 

In  1787,  still  before  the  Constitution,  but  while  the 
convention  was  in  session  framing  it,  and  while  the 
North-western  Territory  still  was  the  only  territory  owned 
by  the  United  States — the  same  question  of  prohibiting 
slavery  in  the  territory  again  came  before  the  Congress 
of  the  Confederation  ;  and  three  more  of  the  "  thirty- 
nine"  who  afterward  signed  the  Constitution  were  in 
that  Congress  and  voted  on  the  question.  They  were 
"William  Blount,  William  Few,  and  Abraham  Baldwin, 
and  they  all  voted  for  the  prohibition — thus  showing 
that,  in  their  understanding,  no  line  dividing  local  from 
Federal  authority,  nor  anything  else,  properly  forbade 
the  Federal  Government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in  Federal 
territory.  This  time  the  prohibition  became  a  law,  being 
a  part  of  what  is  now  known  as  the  ordinance  of  '87. 

The  question  of  Federal  control  of  slavery  in  the 
territories  seems  not  to  have  been  directly  before  the 
convention  which  framed  the  original  Constitution  ;  and 
hence  it  is  not  recorded  that  the  "thirty-nine,"  or  any 
of  them,  while  engaged  on  that  instrument,  expressed 
any  opinion  on  that  precise  question. 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.       191 

In  1789,  by  the  first  Congress  which  sat  under  the 
Constitution,  an  act  was  passed  to  enforce  the  ordinance 
of '87,  including  the  prohibition  of  slavery  in  the  North- 
western Territory.  The  bill  for  this  act  was  reported  by 
one  of  the  "  thirty-nine,"  Thomas  Fitzsimmons,  then  a 
member  of  the  House  of  Representatives  from  Pennsyl- 
vania. It  went  through  all  its  stages  without  a  word 
of  opposition,  and  finally  passed  both  branches  without 
yeas  and  nays,  which  is  equivalent  to  a  unanimous 
passage.  In  this  Congress  there  were  sixteen  of  the 
"  thirty-nine  "  fathers  who  framed  the  original  Consti- 
tution. They  were : 

John  Langdon,  Georgs  Clymer,  Richard  Bassett, 

Nicholas  Oilman,  William  Few,  George  Bead, 

William  S.  Johnson,         Abraham  Baldwin,  Pierce  Butler, 

Roger  Sherman,  Rufus  King,  Daniel  Carroll, 

Robert  Morris,  William  Patterson,  James  Madison, 

Thos.  Fitzsimmons. 

This  shows  that  in  their  understanding  no  line  divid- 
ing local  from  Federal  authority,  nor  anything  in  the 
Constitution,  properly  forbade  Congress  to  prohibit  slav- 
ery in  the  Federal  territory;  else  both  their  fidelity  to  cor- 
rect principle,  and  their  oath  to  support  the  Constitution, 
would  have  constrained  them  to  oppose  the  prohibition. 

Again,  George  Washington,  another  of  the  "  thirty- 
nine,"  was  then  President  of  the  United  States,  and,  as 
such,  approved  and  signed  the  bill,  thus  completing  its 
validity  as  a  law,  and  thus  showing  that,  in  his  under- 
standing, no  line  dividing  local  from  Federal  authority, 
nor  anything  in  the  Constitution,  forbade  the  Federal 
Government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in  Federal  terri- 
tory. 

No  great  while  after  the  adoption  of  the  original  Con- 


192       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

stitution,  North  Carolina  ceded  to  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment the  country  now  constituting  the  State  of  Tennes- 
see;  and  a  few  years  later,  Georgia  ceded  that  which 
now  constitutes  the  States  of  Mississippi  and  Alabama. 
In  both  deeds  of  cession  it  was  made  a  condition  by  the 
ceding  States  that  the  Federal  Government  should  not 
prohibit  slavery  in  the  ceded  country.  Besides  this, 
slavery  was  then  actually  in  the  ceded  country.  Under 
these  circumstances,  Congress,  on  taking  charge  of  these 
countries,  did  not  absolutely  prohibit  slavery  within 
them.  But  they  did  interfere  with  it — take  control  of 
it — even  there,  to  a  certain  extent.  In  1798,  Congress 
organized  the  territory  of  Mississippi.  In  the  act  of 
organization,  they  prohibited  the  bringing  of  slaves  into 
the  territories,  from  any  place  without  the  United  States, 
by  fine,  and  giving  freedom  to  slaves  so  brought.  This 
act  passed  both  branches  of  Congress  without  yeas  and 
nays.  In  that  Congress  were  three  of  the  "  thirty-nine" 
•who  framed  the  original  Constitution.  They  were  Johu 
Langdon,  George  Read,  and  Abraham  Baldwin.  They 
all,  probably,  voted  for  it.  Certainly  they  would  have 
placed  their  opposition  to  it  upon  record,  if,  in  their  un- 
derstanding, any  line  dividing  local  from  Federal  author- 
ity, or  anything  in  the  Constitution,  properly  forbade  the 
Federal  Government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in  Federal 
territory. 

In  1803,  the  Federal  Government  purchased  the  Lou- 
isiana country.  Our  former  territorial  acquisitions  camo 
from  certain  of  our  own  states  ;  but  this  Louisiana  coun- 
try was  acquired  from  a  foreign  nation.  In  1804,  Con- 
gress gave  a  territorial  organization  to  that  part  of  it 
which  now  constitutes  the  State  of  Louisiana.  New  Or- 
leans, lying  within  that  part,  was  an  old  and  compara- 
tively large  city.  There  were  other  considerable  towns 


LIFE    AND   SPEECHES   OP   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN".       193 

and  settlements,  and  slavery  was  extensively  and  thor- 
oughly intermingled  with  the  people.  Congress  did  not, 
in  the  territorial  act,  prohibit  slavery;  but  they  did 
interfere  with  it — take  control  of  it — in  a  more  marked 
and  extensive  way  than  they  did  in  the  case  of  Missis- 
sippi. The  substance  of  the  provision  therein  made,  in 
relation  to  slaves,  was  : 

First:  That  no  slaves  should  be  imported  into  the  ter- 
ritory from  foreign  parts. 

Second:  That  no  slave  should  be  carried  into  it  who 
had  been  imported  into  the  United  States  since  the  first 
day  of  May,  1798. 

Third :  That  no  slave  should  be  carried  into  it,  except 
by  the  owner,  and  for  his  own  use  as  a  settler;  the  pen- 
alty in  all  the  cases  being  a  fine  upon  the  violator  of  the 
law,  and  freedom  to  the  slave. 

This  act,  also,  was  passed  without  yeas  and  nays.  In 
the  Congress  which  passed  it  there  were  two  of  the 
"  thirty-nine."  They  were  Abraham  Baldwin  and  Jon- 
athan Dayton.  As  stated  in  the  case  of  Mississippi,  it 
is  probable  they  both  voted  for  it;  they  would  not  have 
allowed  it  to  pass  without  recording  their  opposition  to 
it,  if,  in  their  understanding,  it  violated  either  the  line 
properly  dividing  local  from  Federal  authority  or  any 
provision  of  the  Constitution. 

In  1819-20  came,  and  passed,  the  Missouri  question. 
Many  votes  were  taken  by  yeas  and  nays,  in  both 
branches  of  Congress,  upon  the  various  phases  of  the 
general ,  question.  Two  of  the  "thirty-nine" — Rufus 
King  and  Charles  Pinckney — were  members  of  that 
Congress.  Mr.  King  steadily  voted  for  slavery  prohibi- 
tion and  against  all  compromises,  while  Mr.  Pinckney 
as  steadily  voted  against  slavery  prohibition  and  against 
all  compromises.  By  this  Mr.  King  showed  that  in  his 
17 


191       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

understanding,  no  line  dividing  local  from  Federal  au- 
thority, nor  anything  in  the  Constitution,  was  violated 
by  Congress  prohibiting  slavery  in  Federal  territory ; 
while  Mr.  Pinckney,  by  his  votes,  showed  that  in  his 
understanding,  there  was  some  sufficient  reason  for  op- 
posing such  prohibition  in  that  case. 

The  cases  I  have  mentioned  are  the  only  acts  of  the 
"  thirty-nine,"  or  any  of  them,  upon  the  direct  issue, 
which  I  have  been  able  to  discover. 

To  enumerate  the  persons  who  thus  acted,  as  being  four 
in  1784,  three  in  1787,  seventeen  in  1789,  three  in  1798, 
two  in  1804,  and  two  in  1819-20 — there  would  be  thirty- 
one  of  them.  But  this  would  be  counting  John  Langdon, 
Roger  Sherman,  William  Few,  Rufus  King,  and  George 
Read,  each  twice,  and  Abraham  Baldwin  four  times. 
The  true  number  of  those  of  the  "thirty-nine,"  whom  I 
have  shown  to  have  acted  upon  the  question,  which,  by 
the  text,  they  understood  better  than  we,  is  twenty- 
three,  leaving  sixteen  not  shown  to  have  acted  upon  it 
in  any  way. 

Here,  then,  we  have  twenty-three  of  our  "  thirty-nine" 
fathers  who  framed  the  government  under  which  we 
live,  who  have,  upon  their  official  responsibility  and 
their  corporal  oaths,  acted  upon  the  very  question  which 
the  text  affirms  they  "  understood  just  as  well,  and  even 
better  than  we  do  now;"  and  twenty-one  of  them — a 
clear  majority  of  the  whole  "  thirty-nine  " — so  acting 
upon  it  as  to  make  them  guilty  of  gross  political  im- 
propriety and  willful  perjury,  if,  in  their  understanding, 
any  proper  division  between  local  and  Federal  authority, 
or  anything  in  the  Constitution  they  had  made  them- 
selves and  sworn  to  support,  forbade  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment to  control,  as  to  slavery,  the  Federal  territories. 
Thus  the  twenty-one  acted;  and,  as  actions  speak  louder 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OP   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.       195 

than  words,  so  actions  under  such  responsibility  speak 
still  louder. 

Two  of  the  twenty-three  voted  against  Congressional 
prohibition  of  slavery  in  the  Federal  territories,  in  the 
instances  in  which  they  acted  upon  the  question.  But 
for  what  reasons  they  so  voted  is  not  known.  They  may 
have  done  so  because  they  thought  a  proper  division  of 
local  from  Federal  authority,  or  some  provision  or  prin- 
ciple of  the  Constitution,  stood  in  the  way;  or  they  may, 
without  any  such  question,  have  voted  against  the  prohi- 
bition on  what  appeared  to  them  to  be  sufficient  grounds 
of  expediency.  No  one  who  has  sworn  to  support  the 
Constitution  can  conscientiously  vote  for  what  he  under- 
stands to  be  an  unconstitutional  measure,  however  expe- 
dient he  may  think  it;  but  one  may  and  ought  to  vote 
against  a  measure  which  he  deems  constitutional,  if,  at 
the  same  time,  he  deems  it  inexpedient.  It,  there- 
fore, would  be  unsafe  to  set  down  even  the  two  who 
voted  against  the  prohibition,  as  having  done  so  be- 
cause, in  their  understanding,  any  proper  division  of 
local  from  Federal  authority,  or  anything  in  the  Consti- 
tution, forbade  the  Federal  Government  to  control,  as  to 
slavery,  in  territory. 

The  remaining  sixteen  of  the  "  thirty-nine,"  so  far  as 
I  have  discovered,  have  left  no  record  of  their  under- 
standing upon  the  direct  question  of  Federal  control  of 
slavery  in  the  Federal  territories.  But  there  is  much 
reason  to  believe  that  their  understanding  upon  that 
question  would  not  have  appeared  different  from  that 
of  their  twenty-three  compeers,  had  it  been  manifested 
at  all. 

For  the  purpose  of  adhering  rigidly  to  the  text,  I 
have  purposely  omitted  whatever  understanding  may 
have  been  manifested,  by  any  person,  however  distin- 


196       LIFE    AND    SPEECHES   OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

guished,  other  than  the  thirty-nine  fathers  who  framed 
the  original  Constitution  ;  and,  for  the  same  reason,  I 
have  also  omitted  whatever  understanding  may  have 
been  manifested  by  any  of  the  "  thirty-nine,"  even,  on 
any  other  phase  of  the  general  question  of  slavery.  If 
we  should  look  into  their  acts  and  declarations  on  those 
other  phases,  as  the  foreign  slave  trade,  and  the  moral- 
ity and  policy  of  slavery  generally,  it  would  appear  to  us 
that  on  the  direct  question  of  Federal  control  of  slavery 
in  Federal  territories,  the  sixteen,  if  they  had  acted  at  all, 
would  probably  have  acted  just  as  the  twenty-three  did. 
Among  that  sixteen  were  several  of  the  most  noted  anti- 
slavery  men  of  those  times — as  Dr.  Franklin,  Alexander 
Hamilton,  and  Gouverneur  Morris — while  there  was  not 
one  now  known  to  have  been  otherwise,  unless  it  may 
be  John  Rutledge,  of  South  Carolina. 

The  sum  of  the  whole  is,  that  of  our  "  thirty-nine  " 
fathers  who  framed  the  original  Constitution,  twenty- 
one — a  clear  majority  of  the  whole — certainly  under- 
stood that  no  proper  division  of  local  from  Federal  au- 
thority, nor  any  part  of  the  Constitution,  forbade  the 
Federal  Government  to  control  slavery  in  the  Federal 
territories ;  while  all  the  rest  probably  had  the  same 
understanding.  Such,  unquestionably,  was  the  under- 
standing of  our  fathers  who  framed  the  original  Consti- 
tution ;  and  the  text  affirms  that  they  understood  the 
question  better  than  we. 

But,  so  far,  I  have  been  considering  the  understand- 
ing of  the  question  manifested  by  the  framers  of  the 
original  Constitution.  In  and  by  the  original  instru- 
ment, a  mode  was  provided  for  amending  it;  and,  as  I 
have  already  stated,  the  present  frame  of  government 
under  which  we  live  consists  of  that  original  and  twelve 
amendatory  articles  framed  and  adopted  since.  Those 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OP   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.       197 

who  now  insist  that  Federal  control  of  slavery  in  Fed- 
eral territories  violates  the  Constitution,  point  us  to  the 
provisions  which  they  suppose  it  thus  violates;  and,  as  I 
understand,  they  all  fix  upon  provisions  in  these  amend- 
atory articles,  and  not  in  the  original  instrument.  The 
Supreme  Court,  in  the  Dred  Scott  case,  plant  themselves 
upon  the  fifth  amendment,  which  provides  that  "  no  per- 
son shall  be  deprived  of  property  without  due  process  of 
law  ;"  while  Senator  Douglas  and  his  peculiar  adherents 
plant  themselves  upon  the  tenth  amendment,  providing 
that  "  the  powers  not  granted  by  the  Constitution  are 
reserved  to  the  states  respectively  and  to  the  people." 

Now,  it  so  happens  that  these  amendments  were 
framed  by  the  first  Congress  which  sat  under  the  Con- 
stitution— the  identical  Congress  which  passed  the  act 
already  mentioned,  enforcing  the  prohibition  of  slavery 
in  the  Northwestern  Territory.  Not  only  was  it  the  same 
Congress,  but  they  were  the  identical  same  individual 
men  who,  at  the  same  session,  and  at  the  same  time 
within  the  session,  had  under  consideration,  and  in 
progress  toward  maturity,  these  constitutional  amend- 
ments and  this  act  prohibiting  slavery  in  all  the  territory 
the  nation  then  owned.  The  constitutional  amendments 
were  introduced  before  and  passed  after  the  act  enforcing 
the  ordinance  of  1787  ;  so  that  during  the  whole  pen- 
dency of  the  act  to  enforce  the  ordinance,  the  constitu- 
tional amendments  were  also  pending. 

That  Congress,  consisting  in  all  of  seventy-six  members, 
including  sixteen  of  the  framers  of  the  original  Consti- 
tution, as  before  stated,  were  pre-eminently  our  fathers 
who  framed  that  part  of  the  government  under  which 
we  live  which  is  now  claimed  as  forbidding  the  Federal 
Government  to  control  slavery  in  the  Federal  territories. 

Is  it  not  a  little  presumptuous  in  any  one  at  this  day 


198       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

to  affirm  that  the  two  things  which  that  Congress  de- 
liberately framed,  and  carried  to  maturity  at  the  same 
time,  are  absolutely  inconsistent  with  each  other?  And 
does  not  such  affirmation  become  impudently  absurd 
when  coupled  with  the  other  affirmation,  from  the  samo 
mouth,  that  those  who  did  the  two  things  alleged  to  be 
inconsistent  understood  whether  they  really  were  incon- 
sistent better  than  we — better  than  he  who  affirms  that 
they  are  inconsistent? 

It  is  surely  safe  to  assume  that  the  "thirty-nine" 
framers  of  the  original  Constitution,  and  the  seventy-six 
members  of  the  Congress  which  framed  the  amendments 
thereto,  taken  together,  do  certainly  include  those  who 
may  be  fairly  called  "  our  fathers  who  framed  the 
government  under  which  we  live."  And  so  assuming, 
I  defy  any  man  to  show  that  any  one  of  them  ever  in 
his  whole  life  declared  that,  in  his  understanding,  any 
proper  division  of  local  from  Federal  authority,  or  any 
part  of  the  Constitution,  forbade  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment to  control  as  to  slavery  in  the  Federal  territories. 
I  go  a  step  farther.  I  defy  any  one  to  show  that  any 
living  man  in  the  whole  world  ever  did,  prior  to  the 
beginning  of  the  present  century,  (and  I  might  almost 
say  prior  to  the  beginning  of  the  last  half  of  the  present 
century,)  declare  that,  in  his  understanding,  any  proper 
division  of  local  from  Federal  authority,  or  any  part  of 
the  Constitution,  forbade  the  Federal  Government  to 
control  as  to  slavery  in  the  Federal  territories.  To  those 
who  now  so  declare,  I  give,  not  only  "  our  fathers  who 
framed  the  government  under  which  we  live,"  but  with 
them  all  other  living  men  within  the  century  in  which 
it  was  framed,  among  whom  to  search,  and  they  shall 
not  be  able  to  find  the  evidence  of  a  single  man  agreeing 
with  them. 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.        199 

Now,  and  here,  let  me  guard  a  little  against  being 
misunderstood.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  we  are  bound  to 
follow  implicitly  in  whatever  our  fathers  did.  To  do  so 
would  be  to  discard  all  the  lights  of  current  experience 
— to  reject  all  progress — all  improvement.  What  I  do 
say  is,  that  if  we  would  supplant  the  opinions  and 
policy  of  our  fathers  in  any  case,  we  should  do  so  upon 
evidence  so  conclusive,  and  argument  so  clear,  that  even 
their  great  authority,  fairly  considered  and  weighed,  can 
not  stand ;  and  most  surely  not  in  a  case  whereof  we 
ourselves  declare  they  understood  the  question  better 
than  we. 

If  any  man,  at  this  day,  sincerely  believes  that  a 
proper  division  of  local  from  Federal  authority,  or  any 
part  of  the  Constitution,  forbids  the  Federal  Government 
to  control  as  to  slavery  in  the  Federal  territories,  he  is 
right  to  say  so,  and  to  enforce  his  position  by  all  truth- 
ful evidence  and  fair  argument  which  he  can.  But  he 
has  no  right  to  mislead  others,  who  have  less  access  to 
history  and  less  leisure  to  study  it,  into  the  false  belief 
that  "  our  fathers,  who  framed  the  government  under 
which  we  live,"  were  of  the  same  opinion — thus  substi- 
tuting falsehood  and  deception  for  truthful  evidence  and 
fair  argument.  If  any  man  at  this  day  sincerely  be- 
lieves "  our  fathers,  who  framed  the  government  under 
which  we  live,"  used  and  applied  principles,  in  other 
cases,  which  ought  to  have  led  them  to  understand  that 
a  proper  division  of  local  from  Federal  authority,  or 
some  part  of  the  Constitution,  forbids  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment to  control  as  to  slavery  in  the  Federal  territo- 
ries, he  is  right  to  say  so.  But  he  should,  at  the  same 
time,  brave  the  responsibility  of  declaring  that,  in  his 
opinion,  he  understands  their  principles  better  than  they 
did  themselves;  and  especially  should  he  not  shirk  that 


200       LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

responsibility  by  asserting   that  they  "understood   the 
question  just  as  \ve!l,  and  even  better,  than  we  do  now." 

But  enough.  Let  all  who  believe  that  "  our  fathers, 
who  framed  the  government  under  which  we  live,  un- 
derstood this  question  just  as  well,  and  even  better,  than 
we  do  now,"  speak  as  they  spoke,  and  act  as  they  acted 
upon  it.  This  is  all  Republicans  ask — all  Republicans 
desire — in  relation  to  slavery.  As  those  fathers  marked 
it,  so  let  it  be  again  marked,  as  an  evil  not  to  be  ex- 
tended, but  to  be  tolerated  and  protected  only  because 
of  and  so  far  as  its  actual  presence  among  us  makes  that 
toleration  and  protection  a  necessity.  Let  all  the  guar- 
antees those  fathers  gave  it  be,  not  grudgingly,  but  fully 
and  fairly  maintained.  For  this  Republicans  contend, 
and  with  this,  so  far  as  I  know  or  believe,  they  will  be 
content. 

And  now,  if  they  would  listen — as  I  suppose  they 
will  not — I  would  address  a  few  words  to  the  Southern 
people. 

I  would  say  to  them  :  You  consider  yourselves  a  rea- 
sonable and  just  people,  and  I  consider  that  in  the  gen- 
eral qualities  of  reason  and  justice  you  are  not  inferior 
to  any  other  people.  Still,  when  you  speak  of  us 
Republicans  you  do  so  only  to  denounce  us  as  reptiles, 
or,  at  the  best,  as  no  better  than  outlaws.  You  will 
grant  a  hearing  to  pirates  or  murderers,  but  nothing, 
like  it  to  "  Black  Republicans."  In  all  your  conten- 
tions with  one  another,  each  of  you  deems  an  uncon- 
ditional condemnation  of  "Black  Republicanism"  as 
the  first  thing  to  be  attended  to.  Indeed,  such  condem- 
nation of  us  seems  to  be  an  indispensable  prerequisite 
— license,  so  to  speak — among  you,  to  be  admitted  or 
permitted  to  speak  at  all. 

Now,  can  you,  or  not,  be  prevailed  upon  to  pause  and 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.        201 

to  consider  whether  this  is  quite  just  to  us,  or  even  to 
yourselves  ? 

Bring  forward  your  charges  and  specifications,  and 
then  be  patient  long  enough  to  hear  us  deny  or  justify. 

You  say  we  are  sectional.  We  deny  it.  That  makes 
an  issue ;  and  the  burden  of  proof  is  upon  you.  You 
produce  your  proof;  and  what  is  it?  Why,  that  our 
party  has  no  existence  in  your  section — gets  no  votes 
in  your  section.  The  fact  is  substantially  true  ;  but 
does  it  prove  the  issue?  If  it  does,  then,  in  case  we 
should,  without  change  of  principle,  begin  to  get  votes 
in  your  section,  we  should  thereby  cease  to  be  sectional. 
You  can  not  escape  this  conclusion ;  and  yet,  are  you 
willing  to  abide  by  it?  If  you  are,  you  will  probably 
soon  find  that  we  have  ceased  to  be  sectional,  for  we 
shall  get  votes  in  your  section  this  very  year.  You  will 
then  begin  to  discover,  as  the  truth  plainly  is,  that  your 
proof  does  not  touch  the  issue.  The  fact  that  we  get 
no  votes  in  your  section  is  a  fact  of  your  making,  and 
not  of  ours.  And  if  there  be  fault  in  that  fact,  that 
fault  is  primarily  yours,  and  remains  so  until  you  show 
that  we  repel  you  by  some  wrong  principle  or  practice. 
If  we  do  repel  you  by  any  wrong  principle  or  practice, 
the  fault  is  ours;  but  this  brings  you  to  where  you 
ought  to  have  started — to  a  discussion  of  the  right  or 
wrong  of  our  principle.  If  our  principle,  put  in  prac- 
tice, would  wrong  your  section  for  the  benefit  of  ours, 
or  for  any  other  object,  then  our  principle,  and  we  with 
it,  are  sectional,  and  are  justly  opposed  and  denounced 
as  such.  Meet  us,  then,  on  the  question  of  whether  our 
principle,  put  in  practice,  would  wrong  your  section : 
and  so  meet  it  as  if  it  were  possible  that  something  may 
be  said  on  our  side.  Do  you  accept  the  challenge?  No? 
Then  you  really  believe  that  the  principle  which  our 


202        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

fathers,  who  framed  the  government  under  which  we 
live,  thought  so  clearly  right  as  to  adopt  it,  and  indorse 
it  again  and  again,  upon  their  official  oaths,  is,  in  fact, 
so  clearly  wrong  as  to  demand  your  condemnation  with- 
out a  moment's  consideration. 

Some  of  you  delight  to  flaunt  in  our  faces  the  warn- 
ing against  sectional  parties  given  by  Washington  in  his 
Farewell  Address.  Less  than  eight  years  before  Wash- 
ington gave  that  warning,  he  had,  as  President  of  the 
United  States,  approved  and  signed  an  act  of  Congress 
enforcing  the  prohibition  of  slavery  in  the  Northwest- 
ern Territory,  which  act  embodied  the  policy  of  the 
government  upon  that  subject,  up  to  and  at  the  very 
moment  he  penned  that  warning;  and  about  one  year 
after  he  penned  it,  he  wrote  Lafayette  that  he  considered 
that  prohibition  a  wise  measure,  expressing,  in  the  same 
connection,  his  hope  that  we  should  some  time  have  a 
confederacy  of  free  states. 

Bearing  this  in  mind,  and  seeing  that  sectionalism  has 
since  arisen  upon  this  same  subject,  is  that  warning  a 
weapon  in  your  hands  against  us,  or  in  our  hands 
against  you?  Could  Washington  himself  speak,  would 
he  cast  the  blame  of  that  sectionalism  upon  us,  who 
sustain  his  policy,  or  upon  you  who  repudiate  it?  We 
respect  that  warning  of  Washington,  and  we  commend 
it  to  you,  together  with  his  example  pointing  to  the  right 
application  of  it. 

But  you  say  you  are  conservative — eminently  con- 
servative— while  we  are  revolutionary,  destructive,  or 
something  of  the  sort.  What  is  conservatism  ?  Is  it 
not  adherence  to  the  old  and  tried,  against  the  new  and 
untried?  We  stick  to  contend  for  the  identical  old  pol- 
icy, on  the  point  of  controversy,  which  was  adopted  by 
our  fathers  who  framed  the  government  under  which  we 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        203 

live ;  while  you  with  one  accord  reject,  and  scout,  and 
spit  upon  that  old  policy,  and  insist  upon  substituting 
something  new.  True,  you  disagree  among  yourselves 
as  to  what  that  substitute  shall  be.  You  have  consider- 
able variety  of  new  propositions  and  plans,  but  you  are 
unanimous  in  rejecting  and  denouncing  the  old  policy 
of  the  fathers.  Some  of  you  are  for  reviving  the  for- 
eign slave  trade ;  some  for  a  congressional  slave  code  for 
the  territories  ;  some  for  Congress  forbidding  the  terri- 
tories to  prohibit  slavery  within  their  limits;  some  for 
maintaining  slavery  in  the  territories  through  the  judi- 
ciary; some  for  the  "gur-reat  pur-rinciple "  that  "if 
one  man  would  enslave  another,  no  third  man  should 
object,"  fantastically  called  "popular  sovereignty;"  but 
never  a  man  among  you  in  favor  of  Federal  prohibition 
of  slavery  in  Federal  territories,  according  to  the  prac- 
tice of  our  fathers  who  framed  the  government  under 
which  we  live.  Not  one  of  all  your  various  plans  can 
show  a  precedent  or  an  advocate  in  the  century  with- 
in which  our  government  originated.  Consider,  then, 
whether  your  claim  of  conservatism  for  yourselves,  and 
your  charge  of  destructiveness  against  us.  are  based  on 
the  most  clear  and  stable  foundations. 

Again,  you  say  we  have  made  the  slavery  question 
more  prominent  than  it  formerly  was.  We  deny  it.  We 
admit  that  it  is  more  prominent,  but  we  deny  that  we 
made  it  so.  It  was  not  we,  but  you,  who  discarded  the 
old  policy  of  the  fathers.  We  resisted,  and  still  resist, 
your  innovation ;  and  thence  comes  the  greater  promi- 
nence of  the  question.  Would  you  have  that  question 
reduced  to  its  former  proportions?  Go  back  to  that  old 
policy.  What  has  been  will  be  again,  under  the  same 
conditions.  If  you  would  have  the  peace  of  the  old 
times,  readopt  the  precepts  and  policy  of  the  old  times. 


204        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

You  charge  that  we  stir  up  insurrections  among  your 
slaves.  We  deny  it;  and  what  is  your  proof?  Harper's 
Ferry!  John  Brown  !  John  Brown  was  no  Republican  ; 
and  you  have  failed  to  implicate  a  single  Republican  in 
his  Harper's  Ferry  enterprise.  If  any  member  of  our 
party  is  guilty  in  that  matter,  you  know  it  or  you  do 
not  know  it.  If  you  do  know  it,  you  are  inexcusable 
to  not  designate  the  man  and  prove  the  fact.  If  you 
do  not  know  it,  you  are  inexcusable  to  assert  it,  and 
especially  to  persist  in  the  assertion  after  you  have  tried 
and  failed  to  make  the  proof.  You  need  not  be  told 
that  persisting  in  a  charge  which  one  does  not  know  to 
be  true,  is  simply  malicious  slander. 

Some  of  you  admit  that  no  Republican  designedly 
aided  or  encouraged  the  Harper's  Ferry  affair,  but  still 
insist  that  our  doctrines  and  declarations  necessarily  lead 
to  such  results.  We  do  not  believe  it.  We  know  we 
hold  to  no  doctrines,  and  make  no  declarations,  which 
were  not  held  to  and  made  by  our  fathers  who  framed 
the  government  under  which  we  live.  You  never  dealt 
fairly  by  us  in  relation  to  this  affair.  When  it  occurred, 
some  important  state  elections  were  near  at  hand,  and 
you  were  in  evident  glee  with  the  belief  that,  by  charg- 
ing the  blame  upon  us  you  could  get  an  advantage  of  us 
in  those  elections.  The  elections  came,  and  your  ex- 
pectations were  not  quite  fulfilled.  Every  Republican 
man  knew  that,  as  to  himself  at  least,  your  charge  was  a 
slander,  and  he  was  not  much  inclined  by  it  to  cast  his 
vote  in  your  favor.  Republican  doctrines  and  declara- 
tions are  accompanied  with  a  continual  protest  against 
any  interference  whatever  with  your  slaves,  or  with  you 
about  your  slaves.  Surely  this  does  not  encourage  them 
to  revolt.  True,  we  do,  in  common  with  our  fathers 
who  framed  the  government  under  which  we  live,  de- 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OP   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.       205 

clare  our  belief  that  slavery  is  wrong ;  but  the  slaves  do 
not  hear  us  declare  even  this.  For  anything  we  say  or 
do,  the  slaves  would  scarcely  know  there  is  a  Republican 
party.  I  believe  they  would  not,  in  fact,  generally  know 
it  but  for  your  misrepresentations  of  us  in  their  hearing. 
In  your  political  contests  among  yourselves,  each  faction 
charges  the  other  with  sympathy  with  Black  Republi- 
canism ;  and  then,  to  give  point  to  the  charge,  defines 
Black  Republicanism  to  simply  be  insurrection,  blood 
and  thunder  among  the  slaves. 

Slave  insurrections  are  no  more  common  now  than 
they  were  before  the  Republican  party  was  organized. 
What  induced  the  Southampton  insurrection,  twenty- 
eight  years  ago,  in  which  at  least  three  times  as  many 
lives  were  lost  as  at  Harper's  Ferry?  You  can  scarcely 
stretch  your  very  elastic  fancy  to  the  conclusion  that 
Southampton  was  got  up  by  Black  Republicanism.  In 
the  present  state  of  things  in  the  United  States,  I  do  not 
think  a  general,  or  even  a  very  extensive  slave  insurrec- 
tion is  possible.  The  indispensable  concert  of  action 
cannot  be  attained.  The  slaves  have  no  means  of  rapid 
communication  ;  nor  can  incendiary  free  men,  black  or 
white,  supply  it.  The  explosive  materials  are  every- 
where in  parcels  ;  but  there  neither  are,  nor  can  be  sup- 
plied, the  indispensable  connecting  trains. 

Much  is  said  by  Southern  people  about  the  affection 
of  slaves  for  their  masters  and  mistresses  ;  and  a  part  of 
it,  at  least,  is  true.  A  plot  for  an  uprising  could  scarcely 
be  devised  and  communicated  to  twenty  individuals  be- 
fore some  one  of  them,  to  save  the  life  of  a  favorite  mas- 
ter or  mistress,  would  divulge  it.  This  is  the  rule  ;  and 
the  slave  revolution  in  Hayti  was  not  an  exception  to  it, 
but  a  case  occurring  under  peculiar  circumstances.  The 
gunpowder  plot  of  British  history,  though  not  connected 


206         LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

with  slaves,  was  more  in  point.  In  that  case  only  about 
twenty  were  admitted  to  the  secret;  and  yet  one  of  them, 
in  his  anxiety  to  save  a  friend,  betrayed  the  plot  to  that 
friend,  and,  by  consequence,  averted  the  calamity. 

Occasional  poisonings  from  the  kitchen,  and  open  or 
stealthy  assassinations  in  the  field,  and  local  revolts  ex- 
tending to  a  score  or  so,  will  continue  to  occur  as  the 
natural  results  of  slavery  ;  but  no  general  insurrection 
of  slaves,  as  I  think,  can  happen  in  this  country  for  a 
long  time.  Whoever  much  fears,  or  much  hopes,  for 
such  an  event,  will  be  alike  disappointed. 

In  the  language  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  uttered  many  years 
ago,  "  It  is  still  in  our  power  to  direct  the  process  of 
emancipation  and  deportation  peaceably,  and  in  such 
slow  degrees,  as  that  the  evil  will  wear  off  insensibly  ; 
and  their  places  be,  part  passu,  filled  up  by  free  white 
laborers.  If,  on  the  contrary,  it  is  left  to  force  itself 
on,  human  nature  must  shudder  at  the  prospect  held 
up." 

Mr.  Jefferson  did  not  mean  to  say,  nor  do  I,  that  the 
power  of  emancipation  is  in  the  Federal  Government. 
He  spoke  of  Virginia ;  and,  as  to  the  power  of  emanci- 
pation, I  speak  of  the  slaveholding  states  only. 

The  Federal  Government,  however,  as  we  insist,  has 
the  power  of  restraining  the  extension  of  the  institution 
— the  power  to  insure  that  a  slave  insurrection  shall 
never  occur  on  any  American  soil  which  is  now  free 
from  slavery. 

John  Brown's  effort  was  peculiar.  It  was  not  a  slave 
insurrection.  It  was  an  attempt  by  white  men  to  get  up 
a  revolt  among  slaves,  in  which  the  slaves  refused  to 
participate.  In  fact,  it  was  so  absurd  that  the  slaves, 
with  all  their  ignorance,  saw  plainly  enough  it  could  not 
succeed.  That  affair,  in  its  philosophy,  corresponds 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        207 

with  the  many  attempts,  related  in  history,  at  the  assas- 
sination of  kings  and  emperors.  An  enthusiast  broods 
over  the  oppression  of  a  people  till  he  fancies  himself 
commissioned  hy  Heaven  to  liberate  them.  He  ventures 
the  attempt,  which  ends  in  little  else  than  in  his  own 
execution.  Orsini's  attempt  on  Louis  Napoleon,  and 
John  Brown's  attempt  at  Harper's  Ferry,  were,  in  their 
philosophy,  precisely  the  same.  The  eagerness  to  cast 
blame  on  old  England  in  the  one  case,  and  on  New  Eng- 
land in  the  other,  does  not  disprove  the  sameness  of  the 
two  things. 

And  how  much  would  it  avail  you  if  you  could,  by  the 
use  of  John  Brown,  Helper's  book,  and  the  like,  break 
up  the  Republican  organization  ?  Human  action  can  be 
modified  to  some  extent,  but  human  nature  cannot  be 
changed.  There  is  a  judgment  and  a  feeling  against 
slavery  in  this  nation,  which  cast  at  least  a  million  and 
a  half  of  votes.  You  cannot  destroy  that  judgment  and 
feeling — that  sentiment — by  breaking  up  the  political 
organization  which  rallies  around  it.  You  can  scarcely 
scatter  and  disperse  an  army  which  has  been  formed  into 
order  in  the  face  of  your  heaviest  fire;  but  if  you  could, 
how  much  would  you  gain  by  forcing  the  sentiment 
which  created  it  out  of  the  peaceful  channel  of  the  bal- 
lot-box into  some  other  channel?  What  would  that 
other  channel  probably  be?  Would  the  number  of  John 
Browns  be  lessened  or  enlarged  by  the  operation  ? 

But  you  will  break  up  the  Union,  rather  than  submit 
to  a  denial  of  your  Constitutional  rights. 

That  has  a  somewhat  reckless  sound  ;  but  it  would  be 
palliated,  if  not  fully  justified,  were  we  proposing,  by  the 
mere  force  of  numbers,  to  deprive  you  of  some  right, 
plainly  written  down  in  the  Constitution.  But  we  are 
proposing  no  such  thing. 


208        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

When  you  make  these  declarations,  you  have  a  specific 
and  well  understood  allusion  to  an  assumed  Constitu- 
tional right  of  yours,  to  take  slaves  into  the  Federal 
Territories,  and  to  hold  them  there  as  property.  But 
no  such  right  is  specifically  written  in  the  Constitution. 
That  instrument  is  literally  silent  about  any  such  right. 
We,  on  the  contrary,  deny  that  such  a  right  has  any  ex- 
istence in  the  Constitution,  even  by  implication. 

Your  purpose,  then,  plainly  stated,  is,  that  you  will 
destroy  the  government  unless  you  be  allowed  to  con- 
strue and  enforce  the  Constitution  as  you  please,  on  all 
points  in  dispute  between  you  and  us.  You  will  rule  or 
ruin  in  all  events. 

This,  plainly  stated,  is  your  language  to  us.  Perhaps 
you  will  say  the  Supreme  Court  has  decided  the  disputed 
constitutional  question  in  your  favor.  Not  quite  so. 
But,  waiving  the  lawyers'  distinction  between  dictum 
and  decision,  the  court  have  decided  the  question  for  you 
in  a  sort  of  way.  The  court  have  substantially  said  it  is 
your  constitutional  right  to  take  slaves  into  the  Federal 
territories,  and  to  hold  them  there  as  property. 

When  I  say  the  decision  was  made  in  a  sort  of  way,  I 
mean  it  was  made  in  a  divided  court,  by  a  bare  majority 
of  the  judges,  and  they  not  quite  agreeing  with  one  an- 
other in  the  reasons  for  making  it ;  that  it  is  so  made  as 
that  its  avowed  supporters  disagree  with  one  another 
about  its  meaning  ;  and  that  it  was  mainly  based  upon  a 
mistaken  statement  of  fact — the  statement  in  the  opinion 
that  "the  right  of  property  in  a  slave  is  distinctly  and 
expressly  affirmed  in  the  Constitution." 

An  inspection  of  the  Constitution  will  show  that  the 
right  of  property  in  a  slave  is  not  distinctly  and  expressly 
affirmed  in  it.  Bear  in  mind  the  judges  do  not  pledge 
their  judicial  opinion  that  such  right  is  implicitly  affirm- 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        209 

ed  in  the  Constitution  ;  but  they  pledge  their  veracity 
that  it  is  distinctly  and  expressly  affirmed  there — "  dis- 
tinctly"— that  is,  not  mingled  with  anything  else — "ex- 
pressly"— that  is,  in  words  meaning  just  that,  without 
the  aid  of  any  inference,  and  susceptible  of  no  other 
meaning. 

If  they  had  only  pledged  their  judicial  opinion,  that 
such  right  is  affirmed  in  the  instrument  by  implication, 
it  would  be  open  to  othets  to  show  that,  either  the  word 
"slave"  nor  "slavery"  is  to  be  found  in  the  Constitu- 
tion, nor  the  word  "property"  even,  in  any  connection 
with  language  alluding  to  the  things  slave  or  slavery, 
and  that  wherever,  in  that  instrument,  the  slave  is  allud- 
ed to,  he  is  called  "  a  person  ;"  and  wherever  his  mas- 
ter's legal  right  in  relation  to  him  is  alluded  to,  it  ia 
spoken  of  as  "service  or  labor  due,"  as  a  "  debt"  paya- 
ble in  service  or  labor. 

Also,  it  would  be  open  to  show,  by  cotemporaneous 
history,  that  this  mode  of  alluding  to  slaves  and  slavery, 
instead  of  speaking  of  them,  was  employed  on  purpose  to 
exclude  from  the  Constitution  the  idea  that  there  could 
be  property  in  man. 

To  show  all  this  is  easy  and  certain. 

When  this  obvious  mistake  of  the  judges  shall  be 
brought  to  their  notice,  is  it  not  reasonable  to  expect 
that  they  will  withdraw  the  mistaken  statement,  and  re- 
consider the  conclusion  based  upon  it? 

And  then  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  "  our  fathers,, 
who  framed  the  government  under  which  we  live" — the 
men  who  made  the  Constitution — decided  this  same  con- 
stitutional question  in  our  favor,  long  ago — decided  it 
without  a  division  among  themselves,  when  making  tho 
decision  ;  without  division  among  themselves  about  the 
meaning  of  it  after  it  was  made,  and  so  far  as  any  evi- 
18 


210         LIFE   AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLX. 

dence  is  left,  without  basing  it  upon  any  mistaken  state- 
ment of  facts. 

Under  all  these  circumstances,  do  you  really  feel  your- 
selves justified  to  break  up  this  government,  unless  such 
a  court  decision  as  yours  is  shall  be  at  once  submitted  to 
as  a  conclusive  and  final  rule  of  political  action? 

But  you  will  not  abide  the  election  of  a  Republican 
President.  In  that  supposed  event,  you  say,  you  will 
destroy  the  Union  ;  and  then,  you  say,  the  great  crime 
of  having  destroyed  it  will  be  upon  us? 

That  is  cool.  A  highwayman  holds  a  pistol  to  my  ear, 
and  mutters  through  his  teeth,  "Stand  and  deliver,  or  I 
shall  kill  you,  and  then  you  will  be  a  murderer  !:) 

To  be  sure,  what  the  robber  demanded  of  me — my 
money — was  my  own;  and  I  had  a  clear  right  to  keep  it; 
but  it  was  no  more  my  own  than  my  vote  is  my  own  ; 
and  the  threat  of  death  to  me,  to  extort  my  money,  and 
the  threat  of  destruction  to  the  Union,  to  extort  my  vote, 
can  scarcely  be  distinguished  in  principle. 

A  few  words  now  to  Republicans.  It  is  exceedingly 
desirable  that  all  parts  of  this  great  confederacy  shall  be 
at  peace,  and  in  harmony,  one  with  another.  Let  us  Re- 
publicans do  our  part  to  have  it  so.  Even  though  much 
provoked,  let  us  do  nothing  through  passion  and  ill  tem- 
per. Even  though  the  Southern  people  will  not  so  much 
as  listen  to  us,  let  us  calmly  consider  their  demands,  and 
yield  to  them  if,  in  our  deliberate  view  of  our  duty,  we 
possibly  can.  Judging  by  all  they  say  and  do,  and  by 
the  subject  and  nature  of  their  controversy  with  us,  let 
us  determine,  if  we  can,  what  will  satisfy  them. 

Will  they  be  satisfied  if  the  territories  be  uncondition- 
ally surrendered  to  them?  We  know  they  will  not.  In 
all  their  present  complaints  against  us,  the  territories 
are  scarcely  mentioned.  Invasions  and  insurrections 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.       211 

are  the  rage  now.  Will  it  satisfy  them  if,  in  the  future, 
we  have  nothing  to  do  with  invasions  and  insurrections? 
We  know  it  will  not.  We  so  know  because  we  know  wo 
never  had  anything  to  do  with  invasions  and  insurrec- 
tions ;  and  yet  this  total  abstaining  does  not  exempt  us 
from  the  charge  and  the  denunciation. 

The  question  recurs,  what  will  satisfy  them  ?  Simply 
this  :  We  must  not  only  let  them  alone,  but  we  must, 
somehow,  convince  them  that  we  do  let  them  alone. 
This,  we  know  by  experience,  is  no  easy  task.  We  have 
been  so  trying  to  convince  them  from  the  very  begin- 
ning of  our  organization,  but  with  no  success.  In  all 
our  platforms  and  speeches,  we  have  constantly  protest- 
ed our  purpose  to  let  them  alone ;  but  this  has  had  no 
tendency  to  convince  them.  Alike  unavailing  to  con- 
vince them  is  the  fact  that  they  have  never  detected  a 
man  of  us  in  any  attempt  to  disturb  them. 

These  natural  and  apparently  adequate  means  all  fail- 
ing, what  will  convince  them  ?  This,  and  this  only  : 
Cease  to  call  slavery  wrong,  and  join  them  in  calling  it 
right.  And  this  must  be  done  thoroughly — done  in  acts 
as  well  as  in  ivords.  Silence  will  not  be  tolerated — we 
must  place  ourselves  avowedly  with  them.  Douglas's 
new  sedition  law  must  be  enacted,  and  enforced,  sup- 
pressing all  declarations  that  slavery  is  wrong,  whether 
made  in  politics,  in  presses,  in  pulpits,  or  in  private. 
We  must  arrest  and  return  their  fugitive  slaves  with 
greedy  pleasure.  We  must  pull  down  our  Free  State 
Constitutions.  The  whole  atmosphere  must  be  disin- 
fected from  all  taint  of  opposition  to  slavery,  before  they 
will  cease  to  believe  that  all  their  troubles  proceed  from 
us. 

I  am  quite  aware  they  do  not  state  their  case  precisely 
in  this  way.  Most  of  them  would  probably  say  to  us, 


212        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

"  Let  us  alone,  do  nothing  to  us,  and  say  what  you 
please  about  slavery."  But  we  do  let  them  alone — have 
never  disturbed  them — so  that,  after  all,  it  is  what  we  say 
which  dissatisfies  them.  They  will  continue  to  accuse 
us  of  doing  until  we  cease  saying. 

I  am  also  aware  they  have  not,  as  yet,  in  terms,  de- 
manded the  overthrow  of  our  Free  State  Constitutions. 
Yet  those  Constitutions  declare  the  wrong  of  slavery  with 
more  solemn  emphasis  than  do  all  other  sayings  against 
it;  and  when  all  other  sayings  shall  have  been  silenced, 
the  overthrow  of  these  Constitutions  will  be  demanded, 
and  nothing  be  left  to  resist  the  demand.  It  is  nothing 
to  the  contrary  that  they  do  not  demand  the  whole  of 
this  just  now.  Demanding  what  they  do,  and  for  the 
reason  they  do,  they  can  voluntarily  stop  nowhere  short 
of  this  consummation.  Holding,  as  they  do,  that  slavery 
is  morally  right  and  socially  elevating,  they  can  not  cease 
to  demand  a  full  national  recognition  of  it,  as  a  legal 
right  and  a  social  blessing. 

Nor  can  we  justifiably  withhold  this  on  any  ground, 
save  our  conviction  that  slavery  is  wrong.  If  slavery  is 
right,  all  words,  acts,  laws,  and  Constitutions  against  it, 
are  themselves  wrong,  and  should  be  silenced  and  swept 
away.  If  it  is  right,  we  can  not  justly  object  to  its 
nationality — its  universality ;  if  it  is  wrong,  they  can 
not  justly  insist  upon  its  extension — its  enlargement. 
All  they  ask  we  could  readily  grant,  if  we  thought  slav- 
ery right;  all  we  ask  they  could  readily  grant,  if  they 
thought  it  wrong. 

Their  thinking  it  right,  and  our  thinking  it  wrong, 
is  the  precise  fact  upon  which  depends  the  whole  con- 
troversy. Thinking  it  right,  as  they  do,  they  are  not  to 
blame  for  desiring  its  full  recognition,  as  being  right ; 
but,  thinking  it  wrong,  as  we  do,  can  we  yield  to  them? 


LIFE    AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.       213 

Can  we  cast  our  votes  with  their  view,  and  against  our 
own?  In  view  of  our  moral,  social,  and  political  respon- 
sibilities, can  we  do  this  ? 

Wrong  as  we  think  slavery  is,  we  can  yet  afford  to  let 
it  alone  where  it  is,  because  that  much  is  due  to  the 
necessity  arising  from  its  actual  presence  in  the  nation; 
but  can  we,  while  our  votes  will  prevent  it,  allow  it  to 
spread  into  the  national  territories,  and  to  overrun  us 
here  in  these  free  states  ? 

If  our  sense  of  duty  forbids  this,  then  let  us  stand 
by  our  duty,  fearlessly  and  effectively.  Let  us  be  divert- 
ed by  none  of  those  sophistical  contrivances  wherewith 
we  are  so  industriously  plied  and  belabored — contrivan- 
ces such  as  groping  for  some  middle  ground  between 
the  right  and  the  wrong,  vain  as  the  search  for  a  man 
who  should  be  neither  a  living  man  nor  a  dead  man — 
such  as  a  policy  of  "don't  care  "  on  a  question  about 
which  all  true  men  do  care — such  as  Union  appeals  be- 
seeching true  Union  men  to  yield  to  disunionists,  re- 
versing the  Divine  rule,  and  calling,  not  the  sinners,  but 
the  righteous  to  repentance  —  such  as  invocations  of 
Washington,  imploring  men  to  unsay  what  Washington 
said,  and  undo  what  Washington  did. 

Neither  let  us  be  slandered  from  our  duty  by  false 
accusations  against  us,  nor  frightened  from  it  by  mena- 
ces of  destruction  to  the  government,  nor  of  dungeons 
to  ourselves.  Let  us  have  faith  that  right  makes  might; 
and  in  that  faith  let  us,  to  the  end,  dare  to  do  our  duty 
as  we  understand  it. 


SPEECH 

DELIVERED  AT  COLUMBUS,  OHIO,  SEPTEMBER,  1859. 


FELLOW-CITIZENS  OP  THE  STATE  OF  OHIO:  I  can  not 
fail  to  remember  that  I  appear  for  the  first  time  before 
an  audience  in  this  now  great  State — an  audience  that  is 
accustomed  to  hear  such  speakers  as  Corwin,  and  Chase, 
and  Wade,  and  many  other  renowned  men  ;  and  remem- 
bering this,  I  feel  that  it  will  be  well  for  you,  as  for  me, 
that  you  should  not  raise  your  expectations  to  that 
standard  to  which  you  would  have  been  justified  in  rais- 
ing them  had  one  of  these  distinguished  men  appeared 
before  you.  You  would  perhaps  be  only  preparing  a 
disappointment  for  yourselves,  and,  as  a  consequence 
of  your  disappointment,  mortification  to  me.  I  hope, 
therefore,  that  you  will  commence  with  very  moderate 
expectations ;  and  perhaps,  if  you  will  give  me  your 
attention,  I  shall  be  able  to  interest  you  to  a  moderate 
degree. 

Appearing  here  for  the  first  time  in  my  life,  I  have 
been  somewhat  embarrassed  for  a  topic  by  way  of  intro- 
duction to  my  speech  ;  but  I  have  been  relieved  from 
that  embarrassment  by  an  introduction  which  the  Ohio 
Statesman  newspaper  gave  me  this  morning.  In  this 
paper,  I  have  read  an  article,  in  which,  among  other 
statements,  I  find  the  following: 
(214) 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        215 

"In  debating  with  Senator  Douglas  during  the  memorable  con- 
test of  last  fall,  Mr.  Lincoln  declared  in  favor  of  negro  suffrage, 
and  attempted  to  defend  that  vile  conception  against  the  Little 
Giant." 

I  mention  this  now,  at  the  opening  of  my  remarks,  for 
the  purpose  of  making  three  comments  upon  it.  The 
first  I  have  already  announced — it  furnishes  me  an  in- 
troductory topic ;  the  second  is  to  show  that  the  gentle- 
man is  mistaken ;  thirdly,  to  give  him  an  opportunity 
to  correct  it. 

In  the  first  place,  in  regard  to  this  matter  being  a  mis- 
take. I  have  found  that  it  is  not  entirely  safe,  when  one 
is  misrepresented  under  his  very  nose,  to  allow  the  mis- 
representation to  go  uncontradicted.  I  therefore  pro- 
pose here,  at  the  outset,  not  only  to  say  that  this  is  a 
misrepresentation,  but  to  show  conclusively  that  it  is  so; 
and  you  will  bear  with  me  while  I  read  a  couple  of  ex- 
tracts from  that  very  "  memorable  "  debate  with  Judge 
Douglas  last  year,  to  which  this  newspaper  refers.  In 
the  first  pitched  battle  which  Senator  Douglas  and  my- 
self had,  at  the  town  of  Ottawa,  I  used  the  language 
which  I  will  now  read.  Having  been  previously  reading 
an  extract,  I  continued  as  follows : 

"  Now,  gentlemen,  I  don't  want  to  read  at  any  greater 
length,  but  this  is  the  true  complexion  of  all  I  have  ever 
said  in  regard  to  the  institution  of  slavery  and  the  black 
race.  This  is  the  whole  of  it,  and  anything  that  argues 
me  into  his  idea  of  perfect  social  and  political  equality 
with  the  negro,  is  but  a  specious  and  fastastic  arrange- 
ment of  words,  by  which  a  man  can  prove  a  horse- 
chestnut  to  be  a  chestnut  horse.  I  will  say  here,  while 
upon  this  subject,  that  I  have  no  purpose  directly  or 
indirectly  to  interfere  with  the  institution  of  slavery  in 
the  states  where  it  exists.  I  believe  I  have  no  lawful 


216        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

right  to  do  so,  and  I  have  no  inclination  to  do  so.  I 
have  no  purpose  to  introduce  political  and  social  equal- 
ity between  the  white  and  the  black  races.  There  is  a 
physical  difference  between  the  two  which,  in  my  judg- 
ment, will  probably  forbid  their  ever  living  together 
upon  the  footing  of  perfect  equality ;  and  inasmuch  as 
it  becomes  a  necessity  that  there  must  be  a  difference, 
I,  as  well  as  Judge  Douglas,  am  in  favor  of  the  race  to 
which  I  belong  having  the  superior  position.  I  have 
never  said  anything  to  the  contrary,  but  I  hold  that, 
notwithstanding  all  this,  there  is  no  reason  in  the  world 
•why  the  negro  is  not  entitled  to  all  the  natural  rights 
enumerated  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence — the 
right  of  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  I 
hold  that  he  is  as  much  entitled  to  these  as  the  white 
man.  I  agree  with  Judge  Douglas,  he  is  not  my  equal 
in  many  respects — certainly  not  in  color,  perhaps  not  in 
moral  or  intellectual  endowments.  But  in  the  right  to 
eat  the  bread,  without  leave  of  anybody  else,  which  his 
own  hand  earns,  he  is  my  equal,  and  the  equal  of  Judge 
Douglas,  and  the  equal  of  every  living  many 

Upon  a  subsequent  occasion,  when  the  reason  for 
making  a  statement  like  this  recurred,  I  said  : 

"  While  I  was  at  the  hotel  to-day,  an  elderly  gentle- 
man called  upon  me  to  know  whether  I  was  really  in 
favor  of  producing  perfect  equality  between  the  negroes 
and  white  people.  While  I  had  not  proposed  to  myself 
on  this  occasion  to  say  much  on  that  subject,  yet  as  the 
question  was  asked  me,  I  thought  I  would  occupy  per- 
haps five  minutes  in  saying  something  in  regard  to  it. 
I  will  say,  then,  that  I  am  not,  nor  ever  have  been,  in 
favor  of  bringing  about  in  any  way  the  social  and  polit- 
ical equality  of  the  white  and  black  races — that  I  am  not 
nor  ever  have  been  in  favor  of  making  voters  or  jurors  of 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        217 

negroes,  nor  of  qualifying  them  to  hold  office,  or  inter- 
marry with  white  people;  and  I  will  say  in  addition  to 
this,  that  there  is  a  physical  difference  between  the  white 
and  black  races  which  I  believe  will  forever  forbid  the 
two  races  living  together  on  terms  of  social  and  politi- 
cal equality.  And  inasmuch  as  they  can  not  so  live, 
•while  they  do  remain  together  there  must  be  the  posi- 
tion, of  superior  and  inferior,  and  I,  as  much  as  any 
other  man,  am  in  favor  of  having  the  superior  position 
assigned  to  the  white  race.  I  say  upon  this  occasion  I 
do  not  perceive  that  because  the  white  man  is  to  have 
the  superior  position,  the  negro  should  be  denied  every- 
thing. I  do  not  understand  that  because  I  do  not  want 
a  negro  woman  for  a  slave,  I  must  necessarily  want  her 
for  a  wife.  My  understanding  is  that  I  can  just  let  her 
alone.  I  am  now  in  my  fiftieth  year,  and  I  certainly 
never  have  had  a  black  woman  for  either  a  slave  or  a 
wife.  So  it  seems  to  me  quite  possible  for  us  to  get 
along  without  making  either  slaves  or  wives  of  negroes. 
I  will  add  to  this  that  I  have  never  seen  to  my  knowl- 
edge a  man,  woman,  or  child,  who  was  in  favor  of  pro- 
ducing perfect  equality,  social  and  political,  between 
negroes  and  white  men.  I  recollect  of  but  one  distin- 
guished instance  that  I  ever  heard  of  so  frequently  as 
to  be  satisfied  of  its  correctness — and  that  is  the  case  of 
Judge  Douglas's  old  friend,  Colonel  Richard  M.  Johnson. 
I  will  also  add  to  the  remarks  I  have  made  (for  I  am  not 
going  to  enter  at  large  upon  this  subject,)  that  I  have 
never  had  the  least  apprehension  that  I  or  my  friends 
would  marry  negroes,  if  there  was  no  law  to  keep  them 
from  it ;  but  as  Judge  Douglas  and  his  friends  seem  to 
be  in  great  apprehension  that  they  might,  if  there  were 
no  law  to  keep  them  from  it,  I  give  him  the  most  sol- 
emn pledge  that  I  will,  to  the  very  last,  stand  by  the 
ly 


218       LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

law  of  the  State,  which  forbids  the  marrying  of  white 
people  with  negroes." 

There,  my  friends,  you  have  briefly  what  I  have,  on 
former  occasions,  said  upon  the  subject  to  which  this 
newspaper,  to  the  extent  of  its  ability,  has  drawn  the 
public  attention.  In  it  you  not  only  perceive,  as  a 
probability,  that  in  that  contest  I  did  not  at  any  time 
say  I  was  in  favor  of  negro  suffrage,  but  the  absolute 
proof  that  twice,  once  substantially  and  once  expressly, 
I  declared  against  it.  Having  shown  you  this,  there 
remains  but  a  word  of  comment  upon  that  newspaper 
article.  It  is  this :  that  I  presume  the  editor  of  that 
paper  is  an  honest  and  truth-loving  man,  and  that  he 
will  be  greatly  obliged  to  me  for  furnishing  him  thus 
early  an  opportunity  to  correct  the  misrepresentation  he 
has  made,  before  it  has  run  so  long  that  malicious  people 
can  call  him  a  liar. 

The  Giant  himself  has  been  here  recently.  I  have 
seen  a  brief  report  of  his  speech.  If  it  were  otherwise 
unpleasant  to  me  to  introduce  the  subject  of  the  negro 
as  a  topic  for  discussion,  I  might  be  somewhat  relieved 
by  the  fact  that- he  dealt  exclusively  in  that  subject 
while  he  was  here.  I  shall,  therefore,  without  much 
hesitation  or  diffidence,  enter  upon  this  subject. 

The  American  people,  on  the  first  day  of  January, 
1854,  found  the  African  slave-trade  prohibited  by  a  law 
of  Congress.  In  a  majority  of  the  states  of  this  Union, 
they  found  African  slavery,  or  any  other  sort  of  slavery, 
prohibited  by  State  Constitutions.  They  also  found  a 
law  existing,  supposed  to  be  valid,  by  which  slavery  was 
excluded  from  almost  all  the  territory  the  United  States 
then  owned.  This  was  the  condition  of  the  country, 
•with  reference  to  the  institution  of  slavery,  on  the  first 
of  January,  1854.  A  few  days  after  that,  a  bill  was 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        219 

introduced  into  Congress,  which  ran  through  its  regular 
course  in  the  two  branches  of  the  National  Legislature, 
and  finally  passed  into  a  law  in  the  month  of  May,  by 
which  the  act  of  Congress  prohibiting  slavery  from  going 
into  the  Territories  of  the  United  States  was  repealed. 
In  connection  with  the  law  itself,  and,  in  fact,  in  the  terms 
of  the  law,  the  then  existing  prohibition  was  not  only 
repealed,  but  there  was  a  declaration  of  a  purpose  on  the 
part  of  Congress  never  thereafter  to  exercise  any  power 
that  they  might  have,  real  or  supposed,  to  prohibit  the 
extension  or  spread  of  slavery.  This  was  a  very  great 
change ;  for  the  law  thus  repealed  was  of  more  than 
thirty  years'  standing.  Following  rapidly  upon  the 
heels  of  this  action  of  Congress,  a  decision  of  the  Su- 
preme Court  is  made,  by  which  it  is  declared  that  Con- 
gress, if  it  desires  to  prohibit  the  spread  of  slavery  into 
the  territories,  has  no  constitutional  power  to  do  so. 
Not  only  so,  but  that  decision  lays  down  principles, 
which,  if  pushed  to  their  logical  conclusion — I  say 
pushed  to  their  logical  conclusion — would  decide  that 
the  Constitutions  of  free  states,  forbidding  slavery,  are 
themselves  unconstitutional.  Mark  me,  I  do  not  say 
the  judge  said  this,  and  let  no  man  say  I  affirm  the  judge 
used  these  words;  but  I  only  say  it  is  my  opinion  that 
what  they  did  say,  if  pressed  to  its  logical  conclusion, 
•will  inevitably  result  thus. 

Looking  at  these  things,  the  Republican  party,  as  I 
understand  its  principles  and  policy,  believe  that  there 
is  great  danger  of  the  institution  of  slavery  being  spread 
out  and  extended,  until  it  is  ultimately  made  alike  law- 
ful in  all  the  states  of  this  Union  ;  so  believing,  to  pre- 
vent that  incidental  and  ultimate  consummation,  is  the 
original  and  chief  purpose  of  the  Republican  organiza- 
tion. I  say  "  chief  purpose  "  of  the  Republican  organ- 


220       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

ization ;  for  it  is  certainly  true  that  if  the  national  house 
shall  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  Republicans,  they  will 
have  to  attend  to  all  the  other  matters  of  national  house- 
keeping, as  well  as  this.  The  chief  and  real  purpose  of 
the  Republican  party  is  eminently  conservative.  It  pro- 
poses nothing  save  and  except  to  restore  this  government 
to  its  original  tone  in  regard  to  this  element  of  slavery, 
and  there  to  maintain  it,  looking  for  no  further  change  in 
reference  to  it,  than  that  which  the  original  framers  of  the 
government  themselves  expected  and  looked  forward  to. 

The  chief  danger  to  this  purpose  of  the  Republican 
party  is  not  just  now  the  revival  of  the  African  slave 
trade,  or  the  passage  of  a  Congressional  slave  code,  or 
the  declaring  of  a  second  Dred  Scott  decision,  making 
slavery  lawful  in  all  the  states.  These  are  not  pressing 
us  just  now.  They  are  not  quite  ready  yet.  The  au- 
thors of  these  measures  know  that  we  are  too  strong  for 
them;  but  they  will  be  upon  us  in  due  time,  and  we  will 
be  grappling  with  them  hand  to  hand,  if  they  are  not 
now  headed  off.  They  are  not  now  the  chief  danger  to 
the  purpose  of  the  Republican  organization  ;  but  the 
most  imminent  danger  that  now  threatens  that  pur- 
pose is  that  insidious  Douglas  popular  sovereignty. 
This  is  the  miner  and  sapper.  While  it  does  not  pro- 
pose to  revive  the  African  slave-trade,  nor  to  pass  a 
slave  code,  nor  to  make  a  second  Dred  Scott  decision,  it 
is  preparing  us  for  the  onslaught  and  charge  of  these 
ultimate  enemies  when  they  shall  be  ready  to  come  on, 
and  the  word  of  command  for  them  to  advance  shall  be 
given.  I  say  this  Douglas  popular  sovereignty  —  for 
there  is  a  broad  distinction,  as  I  now  understand  it,  be- 
tween that  article  and  a  genuine  popular  sovereignty. 

I  believe  there  is  a  genuine  popular  sovereignty.  I 
think  a  definition  of  genuine  popular  sovereignty,  in  the 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.       221 

abstract,  would  be  about  this  :  That  each  man  shall  do 
precisely  as  he  pleases  with  himself,  and  with  all  those 
things  which  exclusively  concern  him.  Applied  to  gov- 
ernment, this  principle  would  be,  that  a  General  Gov- 
ernment shall  do  all  tho^e  things  which  pertain  to  it, 
and  all  the  local  governments  shall  do  precisely  as  they 
please  in  respect  to  those  matters  which  exclusively  con- 
cern them.  I  understand  that  this  government  of  the 
United  States,  under  which  we  live,  is  based  upon  this 
principle;  and  I  am  misunderstood  if  it  is  supposed  that 
I  have  any  war  to  make  upon  that  principle. 

Now,  what  is  Judge  Douglas's  popular  sovereignty? 
It  is,  as  a  principle,  no  other  than  that,  if  one  man 
chooses  to  make  a  slave  of  another  man,  neither  that 
other  man  nor  anybody  else  has  a  right  to  object.  Ap- 
plied in  Government,  as  he  seeks  to  apply  it,  it  is  this  : 
If,  in  a  new  territory  into  which  a  few  people  are  begin- 
ning to  enter  for  the  purpose  of  making  their  homes, 
they  choose  to  either  exclude  slavery  from  their  limits,  or 
to  establish  it  there,  however  one  or  the  other  may  affect 
the  persons  to  be  enslaved,  or  the  infinitely  greater  num- 
ber of  persons  who  are  afterward  to  inhabit  that  territory, 
or  the  other  members  of  the  families  of  communities,  of 
which  they  are  but  an  incipient  member,  or  the  general 
head  of  the  family  of  states  as  parent  of  all — however 
their  action  may  affect  one  or  the  other  of  these,  there  is 
no  power  or  right  to  interfere.  That  is  Douglas's  popu- 
lar sovereignty  applied. 

He  has  a  good  deal  of  trouble  with  popular  sovereign- 
ty. His  explanations  explanatory  of  explanations  ex- 
plained are  interminable.  The  most  lengthy,  and,  as  I 
suppose,  the  most  maturely  considered  of  his  long  series 
of  explanations,  is  his  great  essay  in  Harper's  Magazine. 
I  will  not  attempt  to  enter  on  any  very  thorough  invest- 


222       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

igation  of  his  argument,  as  there  made  and  presented.  I 
\vill  nevertheless  occupy  a  good  portion  of  your  time  here 
in  drawing  your  attention  to  certain  points  in  it. 

Such  of  you  as  may  have  read  this  document  will  have 
perceived  that  the  judge,  early  in  the  document,  quotes 
from  two  persons  as  belonging  to  the  Republican  party, 
without  naming  them,  but  who  can  readily  be  recognized 
as  being  Governor  Seward,  of  New  York,  and  myself. 

It  is  true,  that  exactly  fifteen  months  ago  this  day,  I 
believe,  I,  for  the  first  time,  expressed  a  sentiment  upon 
this  subject,  and  in  such  a  manner  that  it  should  get  into 
print,  that  the  public  might  see  it  beyond  the  circle  of 
my  hearers  ;  and  my  expression  of  it  at  that  time  is  the 
quotation  that  Judge  Douglas  makes.  He  has  not  made 
the  quotation  with  accuracy,  but  justice  to  him  requires 
me  to  say  that  it  is  sufficiently  accurate  not  to  change  its 
sense. 

The  sense  of  that  quotation  condensed  is  this — that 
this  slavery  element  is  a  durable  element  of  discord 
among  us,  and  that  we  shall  probably  not  have  perfect 
peace  in  this  country  with  it,  until  it  either  masters  the 
free  principle  in  our  government,  or  is  so  far  mastered 
by  the  free  principle  as  for  the  public  mind  to  rest  in  the 
belief  that  it  is  going  to  its  end.  This  sentiment,  which 
I  now  express  in  this  way,  was,  at  no  great  distance  of 
time,  perhaps  in  different  language,  and  in  connection 
\vith  some  collateral  ideas,  expressed  by  Governor  Seward. 
Judge  Douglas  has  been  so  much  annoyed  by  the  ex- 
pression of  that  sentiment  that  he  has  constantly,  I  be- 
lieve, in  almost  all  his  speeches  since  it  was  uttered,  been 
referring  to  it.  I  find  he  alluded  to  it  in  his  speech  here, 
as  well  as  in  the  copy-right  essay. 

I  do  not  now  enter  upon  this  for  the  purpose  of  mak- 
ing an  elaborate  argument  to  show  that  we  were  right  in 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.       223 

the  expression  of  that  sentiment.  In  other  words,  I 
shall  not  stop  to  say  all  that  might  properly  be  said  upon 
this  point;  but  I  only  ask  your  attention  to  it  for  the 
purpose  of  making  one  or  two  points  upon  it. 
|  If  you  will  read  the  copy-right  essay,  you  will  discover 
that  Judge  Douglas  himself  says  a  controversy  between 
the  American  colonies  and  the  government  of  Great 
Britain  began  on  the  slavery  question  in  1699,  and  con- 
tinued from  that  time  until  the  revolution  ;  and,  while 
he  did  not  say  so,  we  all  know  that  it  has  continued  with 
more  or  less  violence  ever  since  the  revolution. 

Then  we  need  not  appeal  to  history,  to  the  declaration 
of  the  framers  of  the  government,  but  we  know  from 
Judge  Douglas  himself  that  slavery  began  to  be  an  ele- 
ment of  discord  among  the  white  people  of  this  country 
as  far  back  as  1699,  or  one  hundred  and  sixty  years  ago, 
or  five  generations  of  men — counting  thirty  years  to  a 
generation.  Now  it  would  seem  to  me  that  it  might 
have  occurred  to  Judge  Douglas,  or  anybody  who  had 
turned  his  attention  to  these  facts,  that  there  was  some- 
thing in  the  nature  of  that  thing,  slavery,  somewhat  du- 
rable for  mischief  and  discord. 

There  is  another  point  I  desire  to  make  in  regard  to 
this  matter,  before  I  leave  it.  From  the  adoption  of  the 
Constitution  down  to  1820  is  the  precise  period  of  our 
history  when  we  had  comparative  peace  upon  this  ques- 
tion— the  precise  period  of  time  when  we  came  nearer 
to  having  peace  about  it  than  any  other  time  of  that  en- 
tire one  hundred  and  sixty  years,  in  which  he  says  it  be- 
gan, or  of  the  eighty  years  of  our  own  Constitution.  Then 
it  would  be  worth  our  while  to  stop  and  examine  into  the 
probable  reason  of  our  coming  nearer  to  having  peace 
then  than  at  any  other  time.  This  was  the  precise  period 
of  time  in  which  our  fathers  adopted,  and  during  which 


22-4      LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

they  followed,  a  policy  restricting  the  spread  of  slavery, 
and  the  whole  Union  was  acquiescing  in  it.  The  whole 
country  looked  forward  to  the  ultimate  extinction  of  the 
institution.  It  was  when  a  policy  had  been  adopted  and 
was  prevailing,  which  led  all  just  and  right-minded  men 
to  suppose  that  slavery  was  gradually  coming  to  an  end, 
and  that  they  might  be  quiet  about  it,  watching  it  as  it 
expired. 

I  think  Judge  Douglas  might  have  perceived  that  too, 
and  whether  he  did  or  not,  it  is  worth  the  attention  of 
fair-minded  men,  here  and  elsewhere,  to  consider  wheth- 
er that  is  not  the  truth  of  the  case.  If  he  had  looked  at 
these  two  facts,  that  this  matter  has  been  an  element  of 
discord  for  one  hundred  and  sixty  years  among  this  peo- 
ple, and  that  the  only  comparative  peace  we  have  had 
about  it  was  when  that  policy  prevailed  in  this  govern- 
ment, which  he  now  wars  upon,  he  might  then,  perhaps, 
have  been  brought  to  a  more  just  appreciation  of  what  I 
said  fifteen  months  ago — that  "a  house  divided  against 
itself  can  not  stand.  I  believe  that  this  government  can 
not  endure  permanently  half  slave  and  half  free.  I  do 
not  expect  the  house  to  fall.  I  do  not  expect  the  Union 
to  dissolve  ;  but  I  do  expect  it  will  cease  to  be  divided. 
It  will  become  all  one  thing  or  all  the  other.  Either  the 
opponents  of  slavery  will  arrest  the  further  spread  of  it, 
and  place  it  where  the  public  mind  will  rest  in  the  belief 
that  it  is  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction  ;  or  its  ad- 
vocates will  push  it  forward,  until  it  shall  become  alike 
lawful  in  all  the  states,  old  as  well  as  new,  North  as  well 
as  South."  That  was  my  sentiment  at  that  time.  In 
connection  with  it,  I  said,  "We  are  now  far  into  the  fifth 
year,  since  a  policy  was  inaugurated  with  the  avowed  ob- 
ject and  confident  promise  of  putting  an  end  to  slavery 
agitation.  Under  the  operation  of  the  policy,  that  agita- 


-£ 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        225 

lion  has  not  only  not  ceased,  but  has  constantly  aug- 
mented." 

I  now  say  to  you  here  that  we  are  advanced  still  fur- 
ther into  the  sixth  year  since  that  policy  of  Judge  Doug- 
las —  that  popular  sovereignty  of  his,  for  quieting  the 
slavery  question  —  was  made  the  national  policy.  Fifteen 
months  more  have  been  added  since  I  uttered  that  senti- 
ment, and  I  call  upon  you,  and  all  other  right-minded 
men,  to  say  whether  that  fifteen  months  have  belied  or 
corroborated  my  words. 

While  I  am  here  upon  this  subject,  I  cannot  but  ex- 
press gratitude  that  this  true  view  of  this  element  of  dis- 
cord among  us  —  as  I  believe  it  is  —  is  attracting  more 
and  more  attention.  I  do  not  believe  that  Governor 
Seward  uttered  that  sentiment  because  I  had  done  so  be- 
fore, but  because  he  reflected  upon  this  subject,  and  saw 
the  truth  of  it.  Nor  do  I  believe,  because  Governor 
Seward  or  I  uttered  it,  that  Mr.  Hickman,  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, in  different  language,  since  that  time,  has  declared 
his  belief  in  the  utter  antagonism  which  exists  between 
the  principles  of  liberty  and  slavery.  You  see  we  are 
multiplying. 

Now,  while  I  am  speaking  of  Hickman,  let  me  say,  I 
know  but  little  about  him.  I  have  never  seen  him,  and 
know  scarcely  anything  about  the  man  ;  but  I  will  say 
this  much  of  him  :  Of  all  the  anti-Lecompton  Democra- 
cy that  have  been  brought  to  my  notice,  he  alone  has  the 
true,  genuine  ring  of  the  metal.  And  now,  without  in- 
dorsing anything  else  he  has  said,  I  will  ask  this  audi- 
ence to  give  three  cheers  for  Hickman.  (The  audience 
responded  with  three  rousing  cheers  for  Hickman.) 

Another  point  in  the  copy-right  essay  to  which  I  would 
ask  your  attention,  is  rather  a  feature  to  be  extracted 
from  the  whole  thing,  than  from  any  express  declaration 


226       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

of  it  at  any  point.  It  is  a  general  feature  of  that  docu- 
ment, and  indeed,  of  all  of  Judge  Douglas's  discussions 
of  this  question,  that  the  territories  of  the  United  States, 
and  the  states  of  this  Union,  are  exactly  alike — that 
there  is  no  difference  between  them  at  all — that  the  Con- 
stitution applies  to  the  territories  precisely  as  it  does  to 
the  states — and  that  the  United  States  Government,  under 
the  Constitution,  may  not  do  in  a  state  what  it  may  not 
do  in  a  territory,  and  what  it  must  do  in  a  state,  it  must 
do  in  a  territory.  Gentlemen,  is  that  a  true  view  of  the 
case  ?  It  is  necessary  for  this  squatter  sovereignty  ;  but 
is  it  true  ? 

Let  us  consider.  "What  does  it  depend  upon  ?  It 
depends  altogether  upon  the  proposition  that  the  States 
must,  without  the  interference  of  the  General  Govern- 
ment, do  all  those  things  that  pertain  exclusively  to 
themselves — that  are  local  in  their  nature,  that  have  no 
connection  with  the  General  Government.  After  Judge 
Douglas  has  established  this  proposition,  which  nobody 
disputes  or  ever  has  disputed,  he  proceeds  to  assume, 
without  proving  it,  that  slavery  is  one  of  those  little, 
unimportant,  trivial  matters  which  are  of  just  about 
as  much  consequence  as  the  question  would  be  to  me, 
•whether  my  neighbor  should  raise  horned  cattle  or  plant 
tobacco ;  that  there  is  no  moral  question  about  it,  but 
that  it  is  altogether  a  matter  of  dollars  and  cents ;  that 
when  a  new  territory  is  opened  for  settlement,  the  first 
man  who  goes  into  it  may  plant  there  a  thing  which, 
like  the  Canada  thistle  or  some  other  of  those  pests  of 
the  soil,  can  not  be  dug  out  by  the  millions  of  men 
who  will  come  thereafter  ;  that  it  is  one  of  those  little 
things  that  is  so  trivial  in  its  nature  that  it  has  no  effect 
upon  anybody  save  the  few  men  who  first  plant  upon 
the  soil ;  that  it  is  not  a  thing  which  in  any  way  affecta 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.       227 

the  family  of  communities  composing  these  states,  nor 
any  way  endangers  the  General  Government.  Judge 
Douglas  ignores  altogether  the  very  well  known  fact, 
that  we  have  never  had  a  serious  menace  to  our  politi- 
cal existence,  except  it  sprang  from  this  thing,  which 
he  chooses  to  regard  as  only  upon  a  par  with  onions  and 
potatoes. 

Turn  it,  and  contemplate  it  in  another  view.  He 
says,  that  according  to  his  popular  sovereignty,  the  Gen- 
eral Government  may  give  to  the  territories  governors, 
judges,  marshals,  secretaries,  and  all  the  other  chief  men 
to  govern  them,  but  they  must  not  touch  upon  this 
other  question.  "Why?  The  question  of  who  shall  be 
governor  of  a  territory  for  a  year  or  two,  and  pass 
away,  without  his  track  being  left  upon  the  soil,  or  an 
act  which  he  did  for  good  or  for  evil  being  left  behind, 
is  a  question  of  vast  national  magnitude.  It  is  so  much 
opposed  in  its  nature  to  locality,  that  the  nation  itself 
must  decide  it;  while  this  other  matter  of  planting 
slavery  upon  a  soil — a  thing  which  once  planted  can 
not  be  eradicated  by  the  succeeding  millions  who  have 
as  much  right  there  as  the  first  comers,  or  if  eradicated, 
not  without  infinite  difficulty  and  a  long  struggle — he 
considers  the  power  to  prohibit  it  as  one  of  these  little, 
local,  trivial  things,  that  the  nation  ought  not  to  say  a 
word  about;  that.it  affects  nobody  save  the  few  men  who 
are  there. 

Take  these  two  things  and  consider  them  together ; 
present  the  question  of  planting  a  state  with  the  insti- 
tution of  slavery  by  the  side  of  a  question  of  who  shall 
be  governor  of  Kansas  for  a  year  or  two,  and  is  there 
a  man  here — is  there  a  man  on  earth — who  would  not 
say  the  governor  question  is  the  little  one,  and  the 
slavery  question  is  the  great  one  ?  I  ask  any  honest 


228        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

Democrat  if  the  small,  the  local,  and  the  trivial  and 
temporary  question  is  not,  who  shall  be  governor? 
While  the  durable,  the  important  and  the  mischievous 
one  is,  shall  this  soil  be  planted  with  slavery? 

This  is  an  idea,  I  suppose,  which  has  arisen  in  Judge 
Douglas's  mind  from  his  peculiar  structure.  I  suppose 
the  institution  of  slavery  really  looks  small  to  him.  He 
is  so  put  up  by  nature  that  a  lash  upon  his  back  would 
hurt  him,  but  a  lash  upon  anybody  else's  back  does 
not  hurt  him.  That  is  the  build  of  the  man,  and  con- 
sequently he  looks  upon  the  matter  of  slavery  in  this 
unimportant  light. 

Judge  Douglas  ought  to  remember  when  he  is  en- 
deavoring to  force  this  policy  upon  the  American  people 
that  while  he  is  put  up  in  that  way  a  good  many  are 
not.  He  ought  to  remember  that  there  was  once  in  this 
country  a  man  by  the  name  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  sup- 
posed to  be  a  Democrat — a  man  whose  principles  and 
policy  are  not  very  prevalent  among  Democrats  to-day, 
it  is  true ;  but  that  man  did  not  take  exactly  this  view 
of  the  insignificance  of  the  element  of  slavery  which 
our  friend  Judge  Douglas  does.  In  contemplation  of 
this  thing,  we  all  know  he  was  led  to  exclaim :  "  I 
tremble  for  my  country  when  I  remember  that  God  is 
just!"  We  know  how  he  looked  upon  it  when  he  thus 
expressed  himself.  There  was  danger  to  this  country — 
danger  of  the  avenging  justice  of  God  in  that  little 
unimportant  popular  sovereignty  question  of  Judge 
Douglas.  He  supposed  there  was  a  question  of  God's 
eternal  justice  wrapped  up  in  the  enslaving  of  any  race 
of  men,  or  any  man,  and  that  those  who  did  so  braved 
the  arm  of  Jehovah — that  when  a  nation  thus  dared 
the  Almighty,  every  friend  of  that  nation  had  cause 
to  dread  his  wrath.  Choose  ye  between  Jefferson  and 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.         229 

Douglas  as  to  what  is  the  true  view  of  this  element 
among  us. 

There  is  another  little  difficulty  about  this  matter  of 
treating  the  territories  and  states  alike  in  all  things,  to 
which  I  ask  your  attention,  and  I  shall  leave  this  branch 
of  the  case.  If  there  is  no  difference  between  them,  why 
not  make  the  territories  states  at  once?  What  is  the 
reason  that  Kansas  was  not  fit  to  come  into  the  Union 
when  it  was  organized  into  a  territory,  in  Judge  Doug- 
las's view?  Can  any  of  you  tell  any  reason  why  it  should 
not  have  come  into  the  Union  at  once  ?  They  are  fit,  as 
he  thinks,  to  decide  upon  the  slavery  question — the 
largest  and  most  important  with  which  they  could  pos- 
sibly deal — what  could  they  do  by  coming  into  the 
Union  that  they  are  not  fit  to  do,  according  to  his  view, 
by  staying  out  of  it?  0,  they  are  not  fit  to  sit  in  Con- 
gress and  decide  upon  the  rates  of  postage,  or  questions 
of  ad  valorem  or  specific  duties  on  foreign  goods,  or  live 
oak  timber  contracts;  they  are  not  fit  to  decide  these 
vastly  important  matters,  which  are  national  in  their 
import,  but  they  are  fit,  "from  the  jump,"  to  decide  this 
little  negro  question.  But,  gentlemen,  the  case  is  too 
plain  ;  I  occupy  too  much  time  on  this  head,  and  I  pass 
on. 

Near  the  close  of  the  copy-right  essay,  the  Judge,  I 
think,  comes  very  near  kicking  his  own  fat  into  the  fire. 
I  did  not  think,  when  I  commenced  these  remarks,  that 
I  would  read  from  that  article,  but  I  now  believe  I  will : 

"  This  exposition  of  the  history  of  these  measures,  shows  con- 
clusively that  the  authors  of  the  Compromise  Measures  of  1850 
and  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  act  of  1854,  as  well  as  the  members 
of  the  Continental  Congress  of  1774,  and  the  founders  of  our 
system  of  government  subsequent  to  the  Revolution,  regarded  the 
people  of  the  territories  and  colonies  as  -political  communities, 


230       LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

•which  were  entitled  to  a  free  and  exclusive  power  of  legislation 
in  their  provisional  Legislatures,  where  their  representation  could 
alone  be  preserved,  in  all  cases  of  taxation  and  internal  polity." 

When  the  judge  saw  that  putting  in  the  word  "slav- 
ery" would  contradict  his  own  history,  he  put  in  what 
he  knew  would  pass  as  synonymous  with  it:  "internal 
polity."  Whenever  we  find  that  in  one  of  his  speeches, 
the  substitute  is  used  in  this  manner;  and  I  can  tell 
you  the  reason.  It  would  be  too  bald  a  contradiction  to 
say  slavery,  but  "internal  polity"  is  a  general  phrase, 
which  would  pass  in  some  quarters,  and  which  he  hopes 
will  pass  with  the  reading  community  for  the  sauie 
thing : 

"This  right  pertains  to  the  people  collectively,  as  a  law-abiding 
and  peaceful  community,  and  not  in  the  isolated  individuals  who 
may  wander  upon  the  public  domain  in  violation  of  the  law.  It 
can  only  be  exercised  where  there  are  inhabitants  sufficient  to 
constitute  a  government,  and  capable  of  performing  its  various 
functions  and  duties,  a  fact  to  be  ascertained  and  determined 
by" — who  do  you  think?  Judge  Douglas  says,  "By  Congress!" 

"Whether  the  number  shall  be  fixed  at  ten.  fifteen,  or  twenty 
thousand  inhabitants,  does  not  affect  the  principle:' 

Now  I  have  only  a  few  comments  to  make.  Popular 
sovereignty,  by  his  own  words,  does  not  pertain  to  the 
few  persons  who  wander  upon  the  public  domain  in 
violation  of  law.  We  have  his  words  for  that.  When 
it  does  pertain  to  them,  is  when  they  are  sufficient  to 
be  formed  into  an  organized  political  community,  and 
he  fixes  the  minimum  for  that  at  10.000,  and  the  max- 
imum at  20,000.  Now  I  would  like  to  know  what  is  to 
be  done  with  the  9,000  ?  Are  they  all  to  be  treated, 
until  they  are  large  enough  to  be  organized  into  a  po- 
litical community,  as  wanderers  upon  the  public  land 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OP  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.       231 

in  violation  of  law?  And  if  so  treated  and  driven  out, 
at  what  point  of  time  would  there  ever  be  ten  thousand? 
If  they  were  not  driven  out,  but  remained  there  as  tres- 
passers upo'n  the  public  land  in  violation  of  the  law,  can 
they  establish  slavery  there?  No — the  judge  says  pop- 
ular sovereignty  don't  pertain  to  them  then.  Can  they 
exclude  it  then  ?  No,  popular  sovereignty  don't  pertain 
to  them  then.  I  would  like  to  know,  in  the  case  covered 
by  the  essay,  what  condition  the  people  of  the  territory 
are  in  before  they  reach  the  number  of  ten  thousand? 

But  the  main  point  I  wish  to  ask  attention  to  is,  that 
the  question  as  to  when  they  shall  have  reached  a  suffi- 
cient number  to  be  formed  into  a  regular  organized  com- 
munity, is  to  be  decided  "  by  Congress/'  Judge  Douglas 
says  so.  Well,  gentlemen,  that  is  about  all  we  want.  No, 
that  is  all  the  Southerners  want.  That  is  what  all  those 
who  are  for  slavery  want.  They  do  not  want  Congress 
to  prohibit  slavery  from  coming  into  the  new  territories, 
and  they  do  not  want  popular  sovereignty  to  hinder  it; 
and  as  Congress  is  to  say  when  they  are  ready  to  be  or- 
ganized, all  that  the  South  has  to  do  is  to  get  Congress  to 
hold  off.  Let  Congress  hold  off  until  they  are  ready  to 
be  admitted  as  a  state,  and  the  South  has  all  it  wants  in 
taking  slavery  into  and  planting  it  in  all  the  territo- 
ries that  we  now  have,  or  hereafter  may  have.  In  a 
word,  the  whole  thing,  at  a  dash  of  the  pen,  is  at  last 
put  in  the  power  of  Congress ;  for  if  they  do  not  have 
this  popular  sovereignty  until  Congress  organizes  them, 
I  ask  if  it  at  last  does  not  come  from  Congress?  If,  at 
last,  it  amounts  to  anything  at  all,  Congress  gives  it  to 
them.  I  submit  this  rather  for  your  reflection  than  for 
comment.  After  all  that  is  said,  at  last,  by  a  dash  of 
the  pen,  everything  that  has  gone  before  is  undone,  and 
he  puts  the  whole  question  under  the  control  of  Con- 


232       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES  OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

gress.  After  fighting  through  more  than  three  hours, 
if  you  undertake  to  read  it,  he  at  last  places  the  whole 
matter  under  the  control  of  that  power  which  he  had 
been  contending  against,  and  arrives  at  a  result  directly 
contrary  to  what  he  had  been  laboring  to  do.  He  at 
last  leaves  the  whole  matter  to  the  control  of  Congress. 
There  are  two  main  objects,  as  I  understand  it,  of  this 
Harper's  Magazine  essay.  One  was  to  show,  if  possible, 
that  the  men  of  our  Revolutionary  times  were  in  favor 
of  his  popular  sovereignty;  and  the  other  was  to  show 
that  the  Dred  Scott  decision  had  not  entirely  squelched 
out  this  popular  sovereignty.  I  do  not  propose,  in 
regard  to  this  argument  drawn  from  the  history  of  for- 
mer times,  to  enter  into  a  detailed  examination  of  the 
historical  statements  he  has  made.  I  have  the  impres- 
sion that  they  are  inaccurate  in  a  great  many  instances. 
Sometimes  in  positive  statement,  but  very  much  more 
inaccurate  by  the  suppression  of  statements  that  really 
belong  to  the  history.  But  I  do  not  propose  to  affirm 
that  this  is  so  to  any  very  great  extent;  or  to  enter  into 
a  very  minute  examination  of  his  historical  statements. 
I  avoid  doing  so  upon  this  principle — that  if  it  were  im- 
portant for  me  to  pass  out  of  this  lot  in  the  least  period 
of  time  possible,  and  I  came  to  that  fence  and  saw  by  a 
calculation  of  my  known  strength  and  agility  that  I 
could  clear  it  at  a  bound,  it  would  be  folly  for  me  to 
stop  and  consider  whether  I  could  or  not  crawl  through 
a  crack.  So  I  say  of  the  whole  history,  contained  in  his 
essay,  where  he  endeavored  to  link  the  men  of  the  Rev- 
olution to  popular  sovereignty.  It  only  requires  an 
effort  to  leap  out  of  it — a  single  bound  to  be  entirely 
successful.  If  you  read  it  over,  you  will  find  that  he 
quotes  here  and  there  from  documents  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary times,  tending  to  show  that  the  people  of  the 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.         233 

colonies  were  desirous  of  regulating  their  own  concerns 
in  their  own  way;  that  the  British  Government  should 
not  interfere;  that  at  one  time  they  struggled  with  the 
British  Government  to  be  permitted  to  exclude  the  Afri- 
can slave-trade;  if  not  directly,  to  be  permitted  to  ex- 
clude it  indirectly  by  taxation  sufficient  to  discourage 
and  destroy  it.  From  these  and  many  things  of  this 
sort,  Judge  Douglas  argues  that  they  were  in  favor  of 
the  people  of  our  own  territories  excluding  slavery  if 
they  wanted  to,  or  planting  it  there  if  they  wanted  to, 
doing  just  as  they  pleased  from  the  time  they  settled 
upon  the  territory.  Now,  however  his  history  may 
apply,  and  whatever  of  his  argument  there  may  be  that 
is  sound  and  accurate  or  unsound  and  inaccurate,  if 
we  can  find  out  what  these  men  did  themselves  do 
upon  this  very  question  of  slavery  in  the  territories, 
does  it  not  end  the  whole  thing?  If  after  all  this  labor 
and  effort  to  show  that  the  men  of  the  Revolution  were 
in  favor  of  his  popular  sovereignty  and  his  mode  of 
dealing  with  slavery  in  the  territories,  we  can  show  that 
these  very  men  took  hold  of  that  subject,  and  dealt  with 
it ;  we  can  see  for  ourselves  how  they  dealt  with  it.  It 
is  not  a  matter  of  argument  or  inference,  but  we  know 
what  they  thought  about  it. 

It  is  precisely  upon  that  part  of  the  history  of  the 
country,  that  one  important  omission  is  made  by  Judge 
Douglas.  He  selects  parts  of  the  history  of  the  United 
States  upon  the  subject  of  slavery,  and  treats  it  as  the 
whole,  omitting  from  his  historical  sketch  the  legislation 
of  Congress  in  regard  to  the  admission  of  Missouri,  by 
which  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  established,  and  slav- 
ery excluded  from  a  country  half  as  large  as  the  present 
United  States.  All  this  is  left  out  of  his  history,  and 
in  nowise  alluded  to  by  him,  so  far  as  I  can  remember, 
I'D 


234        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

save  once,  when  he  makes  a  remark,  that  upon  his  prin- 
ciple the  Supreme  Court  were  authorized  to  pronounce 
a  decision  that  the  act  called  the  Missouri  Compromise 
•was  unconstitutional.  All  that  history  has  been  left  out. 
But  this  part  of  the  history  of  the  country  was  not  made 
by  the  men  of  the  Revolution. 

There  was  another  part  of  our  political  history  made 
by  the  very  men  who  were  the  actors  in  the  Revolution, 
which  has  taken  the  name  of  the  ordinance  of  '87.  Let 
me  .bring  that  history  to  your  attention.  In  1784,  I 
believe,  this  same  Mr.  Jefferson  drew  up  an  ordinance 
for  the  government  of  the  country,  upon  which  we  now 
stand ;  or  rather,  a  frame  or  draft  of  an  ordinance  for  the 
government  of  this  country,  here  in  Ohio,  our  neighbors 
in  Indiana,  us  who  live  in  Illinois,  our  neighbors  in 
Wisconsin,  and  Michigan.  In  that  ordinance,  drawn 
up  not  only  for  the  government  of  that  territory,  but  for 
the  territories  south  of  the  Ohio  River,  Mr.  Jefferson  ex- 
pressly provided  for  the  prohibition  of  slavery.  Judge 
Douglas  says,  and  perhaps  is  right,  that  that  provision 
was  lost  from  that  ordinance.  I  believe  that  is  true. 
When  the  vote  was  taken  upon  it,  a  majority  of  all 
present  in  the  Congress  of  the  Confederation  voted  for 
it;  but  there  were  so  many  absentees  that  those  voting 
for  it  did  not  make  the  clear  majority  necessary,  and  it 
was  lost.  But  three  years  after  that,  the  Congress  of 
the  Confederation  were  together  again,  and  they  adopted 
a  new  ordinance  for  the  government  of  this  Northwest 
Territory,  not  contemplating  territory  south  of  the  river, 
for  the  states  owning  that  territory  had  hitherto  re- 
frained from  giving  it  to  the  General  Government; 
hence,  they  made  the  ordinance  to  apply  only  to  what 
the  Government  owned.  In  that,  the  provision  exclud- 
ing slavery  teas  inserted  and  pass°d  imaauMOVtfy,  or  at 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        235 

any  rate  it  passed  and  became  a  part  of  the  law  of  the 
land.  Under  that  ordinance  we  live.  First  here  in  Ohio 
you  were  a  territory,  then  an  enabling  act  was  passed, 
authorizing  you  to  form  a  Constitution  and  State  Gov- 
ernment, provided  it  was  republican  and  not  in  conflict 
with  the  ordinance  of  '87.  When  you  framed  your 
Constitution  and  presented  it  for  admission,  I  think  you 
will  find  the  legislation  upon  the  subject  will  show  that, 
'  Whereas  you  had  formed  a  Constitution  that  was  re- 
publican, and  not  in  conflict  with  the  Ordinance  of '87," 
therefore,  you  were  admitted  upon  equal  footing  with 
the  original  states.  The  same  process  in  a  few  years  was 
gone  through  with  in  Indiana,  and  so  with  Illinois,  and 
the  same  substantially  with  Michigan  and  Wisconsin. 

Not  only  did  that  ordinance  prevail,  but  it  was  con- 
stantly looked  to  whenever  a  step  was  taken  by  a  new 
territory  to  become  a  state.  Congress  always  turned 
their  attention  to  it,  and  in  all  their  movements  upon 
this  subject,  they  traced  their  course  by  that  ordinance 
of  '87.  When  they  admitted  new  states,  they  advertised 
them  of  this  ordinance  as  a  part  of  the  legislation  of 
the  country.  They  did  so  because  they  had  traced  the 
ordinance  of  '87  throughout  the  history  of  this  coun- 
try. Begin  with  the  men  of  the  Revolution,  and  go 
down  for  sixty  entire  years,  and  until  the  last  scrap  of 
that  territory  comes  into  the  Union  in  the  form  of  the 
State  of  Wisconsin — everything  was  made  to  conform 
with  the  ordinance  of  '87,  excluding  slavery  from  that 
vast  extent  of  country. 

I  omitted  to  mention  in  the  right  place  that  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States  was  in  process  of  being 
framed  when  that  ordinance  was  made  by  the  Congress 
of  the  Confederation  ;  and  one  of  the  first  acts  of  Con- 
gress itself,  under  the  new  Constitution  itself,  was  to 


236       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OP   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

give  force  to  that  ordinance  by  putting  power  to  carry 
it  out  in  the  hands  of  the  new  officers  under  the  Con- 
stitution, in  the  place  of  the  old  ones,  who  had  been 
^legislated  out  of  existence  by  the  change  in  the  Gov- 
ernment from  the  Confederation  to  the  Constitution.  Not 
only  so,  but  I  believe  Indiana  once  or  twice,  if  not  Ohio, 
petitioned  the  General  Government  for  the  privilege  of 
suspending  that  provision  and  allowing  them  to  have 
slaves.  A  report  made  by  Mr.  Randolph,  of  Virginia, 
himself  a  slaveholder,  was  directly  against  it,  and  the 
action  was  to  refuse  them  the  privilege  of  violating  the 
ordinance  of '87. 

This  period  of  history,  which  I  have  run  over  briefly, 
is,  I  presume,  as  familiar  to  most  of  this  assembly  as  any 
other  p-art  of  the  history  of  our  country.  I  suppose  that 
few  of  my  hearers  are  not  as  familiar  with  that  part  of 
history  as  I  am,  and  I  only  mention  it  to  recall  your  at- 
tention to  it  at  this  time.  And  hence  I  ask  how  extra- 
ordinary a  thing  it  is  that  a  man  who  has  occupied  a  po- 
sition upon  the  floor  of  the  Senate  of  the  United  States, 
who  is  now  in  his  third  term,  and  who  looks  to  see  the 
government  of  this  whole  country  fall  into  his  own  hands, 
pretending  to  give  a  truthful  and  accurate  history  of  the 
slavery  question  in  this  country,  should  so  entirely  ignore 
the  whole  of  that  portion  of  our  history — the  most  im- 
portant of  all.  Is  it  not  a  most  extraordinary  spectacle, 
that  a  man  should  stand  up  and  ask  for  any  confidence 
in  his  statements,  who  sets  out  as  he  does  with  portions 
of  history,  calling  upon  the  people  to  believe  that  it  is  a 
true  and  fair  representation,  when  the  leading  part,  and 
controlling  feature,  of  the  whole  history  is  carefully  sup- 
pressed ? 

But  the  mere  leaving  out  is  not  the  most  remarkable 
feature  of  this  most  remarkable  essay.  His  proposition 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        237 

is  to  establish  that  the  leading  men  of  the  Revolution 
were  for  his  great  principle  of  non-intervention  by  the 
government  in  the  question  of  slavery  in  the  territories; 
while  history  shows  that  they  decided  in  the  cases  ac- 
tually brought  before  them,  in  exactly  the  contrary  way, 
and  he  knows  it.  Not  only  did  they  so  decide  at  that 
time,  but  they  stuck  to  it  during  sixty  years,  through 
thick  and  thin,  as  long  as  there  was  one  of  the  revolution- 
ary heroes  upon  the  stage  of  political  action.  Through 
their  whole  course,  from  first  to  last,  they  clung  to  free- 
dom. 

And  now  he  asks  the  community  to  believe  that  the 
men  of  the  Revolution  were  in  favor  of  his  great  princi- 
ple, when  we  have  the  naked  history  that  they  themselves 
dealt  with  this  very  subject-matter  of  his  principle,  and 
utterly  repudiated  his  principle,  acting  upon  a  precisely 
contrary  ground.  It  is  as  impudent  and  absurd  as  if  a 
prosecuting  attorney  should  stand  up  before  a  jury,  and 
ask  them  to  convict  A  as  the  murderer  of  B,  while  B  was 
walking  alive  before  them. 

I  say,  again,  if  Judge  Douglas  asserts  that  the  men  of 
the  revolution  acted  upon  principles  by  which,  to  be  con- 
sistent with  themselves,  they  ought  to  have  adopted  his 
popular  sovereignty,  then,  upon  a  consideration  of  his 
own  argument,  he  had  a  right  to  make  you  believe  that 
they  understood  the  principles  of  government,  but  mis- 
applied them — that  he  has  arisen  to  enlighten  the  world 
as  to  the  just  application  of  this  principle.  He  has  a 
right  to  try  to  persuade  you  that  he  understands  their 
principles  better  than  they  did,  and,  therefore,  he  will 
apply  them  now,  not  as  they  did,  but  as  they  ought  to 
have  done.  He  has  a  right  to  go  before  the  community, 
and  try  to  convince  them  of  this  ;  but  he  has  no  right 
to  attempt  to  impose  upon  any  one  the  belief  that  these 


238       LIFE  AND   SPEECHES   OP   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

men  themselves  approved  of  his  great  principle.  There 
are  two  ways  of  establishing  a  proposition.  One  is  by 
trying  to  demonstrate  it  upon  reason;  and  the  other 
is,  to  show  that  great  men  in  former  times  have  thought 
so  and  so,  and  thus  to  pass  it  by  the  weight  of  pure 
authority. 

Now,  if  Judge  Douglas  will  demonstrate  somehow  that 
this  is  popular  sovereignty — the  right  of  one  man  to 
make  a  slave  of  another,  without  any  right  in  that  other, 
or  any  one  else  to  object — demonstrate  it  as  Euclid  demon- 
strated propositions — there  is  no  objection.  But  when 
he  comes  forward,  seeking  to  carry  a  principle  by  bring- 
ing to  it  the  authority  of  men  who  themselves  utterly  re- 
pudiate that  principle,  I  ask  that  he  shall  not  be  permit- 
ted to  do  it. 

I  see,  in  the  judge's  speech  here,  a  short  sentence  in 
these  words  :  "  Our  fathers,  when  they  formed  this  gov- 
ernment under  which  we  live,  understood  this  question 
just  as  well  and  even  better  than  we  do  now."  That  is 
true  ;  I  stick  to  that.  I  will  stand  by  Judge  Douglas  in 
that  to  the  bitter  end. 

And  now,  Judge  Douglas,  come  and  stand  by  me,  and 
truthfully  show  how  they  acted,  understanding  it  better 
than  we  do.  All  I  ask  of  you,  Judge  Douglas,  is  to 
stick  to  the  proposition  that  the  men  of  the  Revolution 
understood  this  subject  better  than  we  do  now,  and  with 
that  better  understanding  they  acted  tetter  than  you  are 
trying  to  act  now. 

I  wish  to  say  something  now  in  regard  to  the  Dred 
Scott  decision,  as  dealt  with  by  Judge  Douglas.  In  that 
"  memorable  debate  "  between  Judge  Douglas  and  my- 
pelf,  last  year,  the  judge  thought  fit  to  commence  a  pro- 
cess of  catechising  me,  and  at  Freeport  I  answered  his 
questions,  and  propounded  some  to  him.  Among  others 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        239 

propounded  to  him  wag  one  that  I  have  here  now.  The 
substance,  as  I  remember  it,  is,  "  Can  the  people  of  a 
United  States  territory,  under  the  Dred  Scott  decision, 
in  any  lawful  way,  against  the  wish  of  any  citizen  of 
the  United  States,  exclude  slavery  from  its  limits,  prior 
.to  the  formation  of  a  State  Constitution  ?" 

He  answered  that  they  could  lawfully  exclude  slavery 
from  the  United  States  territories,  notwithstanding  the 
Dred  Scott  decision.  There  was  something  about  that 
answer  that  has  probably  been  a  trouble  to  the  judge 
ever  since. 

The  Dred  Scott  decision  expressly  gives  every  citizen 
of  the  United  States  a  right  to  carry  his  slaves  into  the 
United  States  territories.  And  now  there  was  some  in- 
consistency in  saying  that  the  decision  was  right,  and 
saying,  too,  that  the  people  of  the  territory  could  law- 
fully drive  slavery  out  again.  When  all  the  trash,  the 
words,  the  collateral  matter,  was  cleared  away  from  it — 
all  the  chaff  was  fanned  out  of  it,  it  was  a  bare  absurd- 
ity— no  less  than  that  a  thing  may  be  lawfully  driven  away 
from  where  it  has  a  laioful  right  to  be.  Clear  it  of  all  the 
verbiage,  and  that  is  the  naked  truth  of  his  proposition 
— that  a  thing  may  be  lawfully  driven  from  the  place 
where  it  has  a  lawful  right  to  stay. 

Well,  it  was  because  the  judge  could  n't  help  seeing 
this,  that  he  has  had  so  much  trouble  with  it;  and  what 
I  want  to  ask  your  especial  attention  to,  just  now,  is  to 
remind  you,  if  you  have  not  noticed  the  fact,  that  the 
judge  does  not  any  longer  say  that  the  people  can  ex- 
clude slavery.  He  does  not  say  so  in  the  copy-right 
essay  ;  he  did  not  say  so  in  the  speech  that  he  made 
here  ;  and,  so  far  as  I  know,  since  his  re-election  to  the 
Senate,  he  has  never  said,  as  he  did  at  Freeport,  that 
the  people  of  the  territories  can  exclude  slavery.  He 


240        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

desires  that  you,  who  wish  the  territories  to  remain  free, 
should  believe  that  he  stands  by  that  position,  but  he 
does  not  say  it  himself.  He  escapes,  to  some  extent, 
the  absurd  position  I  have  stated,  by  changing  his  lan- 
guage entirely. 

What  he  says  now,  is  something  different  in  language, 
and  we  will  consider  whether  it  is  not  different  in  sense, 
too.  It  is  now  that  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  or  rather 
the  Constitution  under  that  decision,  does  not  carry 
slavery  into  the  territories  beyond  the  power  of  the  peo- 
ple of  the  territories  to  control  it  as  other  property.  He 
does  not  say  the  people  can  drive  it  out,  but  they  can 
control  it  as  other  property.  The  language  is  different; 
we  should  consider  whether  the  sense  is  different.  Driv- 
ing a  horse  out  of  this  lot  is  too  plain  a  proposition  to 
be  mistaken  about;  it  is  putting  him  on  the  other  side 
of  the  fence.  Or  it  might  be  a  sort  of  exclusion  of  him 
from  the  lot  if  you  were  to  kill  him,  and  let  the  worms 
devour  him ;  but  neither  of  these  things  is  the  same  as 
"  controlling  him  as  other  property."  That  would  be  to 
feed  him,  to  pamper  him,  to  ride  him,  to  use  and  abuse 
him,  to  make  the  most  money  out  of  him  "  as  other  prop- 
erty;" but,  please  you,  what  do  the  men  who  are  in  favor 
of  slavery  want  more  than  this  ?  What  do  they  really 
want,  other  than  that  slavery,  being  in  the  territories, 
shall  be  controlled  as  other  property? 

If  they  want  anything  else,  I  do  not  comprehend  it. 
I  ask  your  attention  to  this — first,  for  the  purpose  of 
pointing  out  the  change  of  ground  the  judge  has  made, 
and,  in  the  second  place,  the  importance  of  the  change 
— that  that  change  is  not  such  as  to  give  you  gentlemen 
who  want  his  popular  sovereignty  the  power  to  exclude 
the  institution  or  drive  it  out  at  all.  I  know  the  judge 
sometimes  squints  at  the  argument  that  in  controlling  it 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.         241 

as  other  property,  by  unfriendly  legislation,  they  may 
control  it  to  death,  as  you  might  in  the  case  of  a  horse, 
perhaps,  feed  him  so  lightly  and  ride  him  so  much  that 
he  would  die.  But  when  you  come  to  legislative  control, 
there  is  something  more  to  be  attended  to.  I  have  no 
doubt,  myself,  that  if  the  territories  should  undertake  to 
control  slave  property  as  other  property — that  is,  control 
it  in  such  a  way  that  it  would  be  the  most  valuable  as 
property,  and  make  it  bear  its  just  proportion  in  the  way 
of  burdens  as  property — really  deal  with  it  as  property 
— the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  will  say,  "God 
speed  you,  and  amen." 

But  I  undertake  to  give  the  opinion,  at  least,  that  if 
the  territories  attempt,  by  any  direct  legislation,  to  drive 
the  man,  with  his  slave,  out  of  the  territory,  or  to  decide 
that  his  slave  is  free  because  of  his  being  taken  in  there, 
or  to  tax  him  to  such  an  extent  that  he  cannot  keep  him 
there,  the  Supreme  Court  will  unhesitatingly  decide  all 
such  legislation  unconstitutional,  as  long  as  that  Su- 
preme Court  is  constructed  as  the  Dred  Scott  Supreme 
Court  is.  The  first  two  things  they  have  already  decided, 
except  that  there  is  a  little  quibble  among  the  lawyers 
between  the  words  dicta  and  decision.  They  have  al- 
ready decided  a  negro  can  not  be  made  free  by  territorial 
legislation. 

What  is  that  Dred  Scott  decision?  Judge  Douglas 
labors  to  show  that  it  is  one  thing,  while  I  think  it  is 
altogether  different.  It  is  a  long  opinion,  but  it  is  all 
embodied  in  this  short  statement:  "The  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  forbids  Congress  to  deprive  a  man 
of  his  property,  without  due  process  of  law ;  the  right 
of  property  in  slaves  is  distinctly  and  expressly  affirmed 
in  that  Constitution  ;  therefore  if  Congress  shall  under- 
take to  say  that  a  man's  slave  is  no  longer  his  slave, 
21 


242       LIFE    AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

•when  he  crosses  a  certain  line  into  a  territory,  that  is 
depriving  him  of  his  property  without  due  process  of 
law,  and  is  unconstitutional."  There  is  the  whole  Dred 
Scott  decision.  They  add  that  if  Congress  can  not  do 
BO  itself,  Congress  can  not  confer  any  power  to  do  so, 
and  hence  any  effort  by  the  Territorial  Legislature  to 
do  either  of  these  things  is  absolutely  decided  against. 
It  is  a  foregone  conclusion  by  that  court. 

Now,  as  to  this  indirect  mode  by  "unfriendly  legis- 
lation," all  lawyers  here  will  readily  understand  that 
Buch  a  proposition  can  not  be  tolerated  for  a  moment, 
because  a  Legislature  can  not  indirectly  do  that  which 
it  can  not  accomplish  directly.  Then  I  say  any  legis- 
lation to  control  this  property,  as  property,  for  its  benefit 
as  property,  would  be  hailed  by  this  Dred  Scott  Supreme 
Court,  and  fully  sustained ;  but  any  legislation  driving 
slave  property  out,  or  destroying  it  as  property,  directly 
or  indirectly,  will  most  assuredly,  by  that  court,  be  held 
unconstitutional. 

Judge  Douglas  says  if  the  Constitution  carries  slavery 
into  the  territories,  beyond  the  power  of  the  people  of 
the  territories  to  control  it  as  other  property,  then  it  fol- 
lows logically  that  every  one  who  swears  to  support  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  must  give  that  sup- 
port to  that  property  which  it  needs.  And  if  the  Con- 
stitution carries  slavery  into  the  territories,  beyond  the 
power  of  the  people  to  control  it  as  other  property,  then 
it  also  carries  it  into  the  states,  because  the  Constitution 
is  the  supreme  law  of  the  land.  Now,  gentlemen,  if  it 
•were  not  for  my  excessive  modesty  I  would  say  that  I 
told  that  very  thing  to  Judge  Douglas  quite  a  year  ago. 
This  argument  is  here  in  print,  and  if  it  were  not  for 
my  modesty,  as  I  said,  I  might  call  your  attention  to 
it  If  you  read  it,  you  will  find  that  I  not  only  made 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OP   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.       243 

that  argument,  but  made  it  better  than  he  has  made  it 
since. 

There  is,  however,  this  difference.  I  say  now,  and 
said  then,  there  is  no  sort  of  question  that  the  Supreme 
Court  has  decided  that  it  is  the  right  of  the  slaveholder 
to  take  his  slave  and  hold  him  in  the  territory;  and  say- 
ing this,  Judge  Douglas  himself  admits  the  conclusion. 
He  says  if  that  is  so,  this  consequence  will  follow;  and 
because  this  consequence  would  follow,  his  argument  is, 
the  decision  can  not,  therefore,  be  that  way — "  that 
would  spoil  my  popular  sovereignty,  and  it  can  not  be 
possible  that  this  great  principle  has  been  squelched  out 
in  this  extraordinary  way.  It  might  be,  if  it  were  not 
for  the  extraordinary  consequences  of  spoiling  my  hum- 
bug." 

Another  feature  of  the  judge's  argument  about  the 
Dred  Scott  case  is,  an  effort  to  show  that  that  decision 
deals  altogether  in  declarations  of  negatives ;  that  the 
Constitution  does  not  affirm  anything  as  expounded  by 
the  Dred  Scott  decision,  but  it  only  declares  a  want  of 
power — a  total  absence  of  power,  in  reference  to  the 
territories.  It  seems  to  be  his  purpose  to  make  the 
whole  of  that  decision  to  result  in  a  mere  negative  decla- 
ration of  a  "want  of  power  in  Congress  to  do  anything  in 
relation  to  this  matter  in  the  territories.  I  know  the 
opinion  of  the  judges  states  that  there  is  a  total  absence 
of  power;  but  that  is,  unfortunately,  not  all  it  states; 
for  the  judges  add  that  the  right  of  property  in  a  slave 
is  distinctly  and  expressly  affirmed  in  the  Constitution. 
It  does  not  stop  at  saying  that  the  right  of  property  in 
a  slave  is  recognized  in  the  Constitution,  is  declared  to 
exist  somewhere  in  the  Constitution,  but  says  it  is 
affirmed  in  the  Constitution.  Its  language  is  equivalent 
to  saying  that  it  is  embodied  and  so  woven  into  that  in- 


244       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OP   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

strument  that  it  can  not  be  detached  without  breaking 
the  Constitution  itself.  In  a  word,  it  is  a  part  of  the 
Constitution. 

Douglas  is  singularly  unfortunate  in  his  effort  to  make 
out  that  decision  to  be  altogether  negative,  when  the 
express  language  at  the  vital  part  is  that  this  is  dis- 
tinctly affirmed  iu  the  Constitution.  I  think  myself, 
and  I  repeat  it  here,  that  this  decision  does  not  merely 
carry  slavery  into  the  territories,  but  by  its  logical  con- 
clusion it  carries  it  into  the  states  in  which  we  live. 
One  provision  of  that  Constitution  is,  that  it  shall  be 
the  supreme  law  of  the  land — I  do  not  quote  the  lan- 
guage— any  Constitution  or  law  of  any  state  to  the  con- 
trary notwithstanding.  This  Dred  Scott  decision  says 
that  the  right  of  property  in  a  slave  is  affirmed  in  that 
Constitution,  which  is  the  supreme  law  of  the  land,  any 
State  Constitution  or  law  notwithstanding.  Then  I  say 
that  to  destroy  a  thing  which  is  distinctly  affirmed  and 
supported  by  the  supreme  law  of  the  land,  even  by  a 
State  Constitution  or  law,  is  a  violation  of  that  supreme 
law,  and  there  is  no  escape  from  it.  In  my  judgment 
there  is  no  avoiding  that  result,  save  that  the  American 
people  shall  see  that  Constitutions  are  better  construed 
than  our  Constitution  is  construed  in  that  decision. 
They  must  take  care  that  it  is  more  faithfully  and  truly 
carried  out  than  it  is  there  expounded. 

I  must  hasten  to  a  conclusion.  Near  the  beginning 
of  my  remarks,  I  said  that  this  insidious  Douglas  popu- 
lar sovereignty  is  the  measure  that  now  threatens  the 
purpose  of  the  Republican  party,  to  prevent  slavery 
from  being  nationalized  in  the  United  States.  I  pro- 
pose to  ask  your  attention  for  a  little  while  to  some 
propositions  in  affirmance  of  that  statement.  Take  it 
just  as  it  stands,  and  apply  it  as  a  principle;  extend 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        245 

and  apply  that  principle  elsewhere,  and  consider  where 
it  will  lead  you.  I  now  put  this  proposition,  that  Judge 
Douglas's  popular  sovereignty  applied  will  reopen  the 
African  slave-trade  ;  and  I  will  demonstrate  it  by  any 
variety  of  ways  in  which  you  can  turn  the  subject  or 
look  at  it. 

The  judge  says  that  the  people  of  the  territories  have 
the  right,  by  his  principle,  to  have  slaves,  if  they  want 
them.  Then  I  say  that  the  people  in  Georgia  have  the 
right  to  buy  slaves  in  Africa,  if  they  want  them,  and  I 
defy  any  man  on  earth  to  show  any  distinction  between 
the  two  things — to  show  that  the  one  is  either  more 
wicked  or  more  unlawful;  to  show,  on  original  prin- 
ciples, that  one  is  better  or  worse  than  the  other;  or  to 
show  by  the  Constitution,  that  one  differs  a  whit  from 
the  other.  He  will  tell  me,  doubtless,  that  there  is  no 
Constitutional  provision  against  people  taking  slaves 
into  the  new  territories,  and  I  tell  him  that  there  is 
equally  no  Constitutional  provision  against  buying  slaves 
in  Africa.  He  will  tell  you  that  a  people,  in  the  exercise 
of  popular  sovereignty,  ought  to  do  as  they  please  about 
that  thing,  and  have  slaves  if  they  want  them ;  and  I 
tell  you  that  the  people  of  Georgia  are  as  much  entitled 
to  popular  sovereignty  and  to  buy  slaves  in  Africa,  if 
they  want  them,  as  the  people  of  the  territory  are  to 
have  slaves  if  they  want  them.  I  ask  any  man,  dealing 
honestly  with  himself,  to  point  out  a  distinction. 

I  have  recently  seen  a  letter  of  Judge  Douglas's,  in 
which,  without  stating  that  to  be  the  object,  he  doubt- 
less endeavors  to  make  a  distinction  between  the  two. 
He  says  he  is  unalterably  opposed  to  the  repeal  of  the 
laws  against  the  African  slave-trade.  And  why  ?  He 
then  seeks  to  give  a  reason  that  would  not  apply  to  his 
popular  sovereignty  in  the  territories.  What  is  that 


246        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

reason?  "The  abolition  of  the  African  slave-trade  is 
a  compromise  of  the  Constitution  !"  I  deny  it.  There 
is  no  truth  in  the  proposition  that  the  abolition  of  the 
African  slave-trade  is  a  compromise  of  the  Constitution. 
No  man  can  put  his  finger  on  anything  in  the  Consti- 
tution, or  on  the  line  of  history,  which  shows  it.  It  is 
a  mere  barren  assertion,  made  simply  for  the  purpose 
of  getting  up  a  distinction  between  the  revival  of  the 
African  slave-trade  and  his  "great  principle." 

At  the  time  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was 
adopted,  it  was  expected  that  the  slave-trade  would  be 
abolished.  I  should  assert,  and  insist  upon  tiiat,  if 
Judge  Douglas  denied  it.  But  I  know  that  it  was 
equally  expected  that  slavery  would  be  excluded  from 
the  territories,  and  I  can  show  by  history,  that  in  regard 
to  these  two  things,  public  opinion  was  exactly  alike, 
while  in  regard  to  positive  action,  there  was  more  done 
in  the  ordinance  of  '87  to  resist  the  spread  of  slavery 
than  was  ever  done  to  abolish  the  foreign  slave-trade. 
Lest  I  be  misunderstood,  I  say  again,  that  at  the  time  of 
the  formation  of  the  Constitution,  public  expectation  was 
that  the  slave-trade  would  be  abolished,  but  no  more  so 
than  the  spread  of  slavery  in  the  territories  should  be 
restrained.  They  stand  alike,  except  that  in  the  ordi- 
nance of  '87  there  was  a  mark  left  by  public  opinion, 
showing  that  it  was  more  committed  against  the  spread 
of  slavery  in  the  territories  than  against  the  foreign 
slave-trade. 

Compromise  !  What  word  of  compromise  was  there 
about  it?  Why,  the  public  sense  was  then  in  favor  of 
the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade  ;  but  there  was,  at  the 
time,  a  very  great  commercial  interest  involved  in  it,  and 
extensive  capital  in  that  branch  of  trade.  There  were, 
doubtless,  the  incipient  stages  of  improvement  in  the 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        247 

South  in  the  way  of  farming,  dependent  on  the  slave- 
trade,  and  they  made  a  proposition  to  Congress  to  abol- 
ish the  trade  after  allowing  it  twenty  years,  a  sufficient 
time  for  the  capital  and  commerce  engaged  in  it  to  bo 
transferred  to  other  channels.  They  made  no  provision 
that  it  should  be  abolished  in  twenty  years;  I  do  not 
doubt  that  they  expected  it  would  be  ;  but  they  mada 
no  bargain  about  it.  The  public  sentiment  left  no  doubt 
in  the  minds  of  any  that  it  would  be  done  away.  I  re- 
peat, there  is  nothing  in  the  history  of  those  times  in 
favor  of  that  matter  being  a  compromise  of  the  Constitu- 
tion. It  was  the  public  expectation  at  the  time,  mani- 
fested in  a  thousand  ways,  that  the  spread  of  slavery 
should  also  be  restricted. 

Then,  I  say,  if  this  principle  is  established,  that  there 
is  no  wrong  in  slavery,  and  whoever  wants  it  has  a  right 
to  have  it,  is  a  matter  of  dollars  and  cents,  a  eort  of 
question  as  to  how  they  shall  deal  with  brutes,  that  be- 
tween us  and  the  negro  here,  there  is  no  sort  of  question, 
but  at  the  South  the  question  is  between  the  negro  and 
the  crocodile.  That  is  all.  It  is  a  mere  matter  of  poli- 
cy ;  there  is  a  perfect  right  according  to  interest  to  do 
just  as  you  please — when  this  is  done,  where  this  doc- 
trine prevails,  the  miners  and  sappers  will  have  formed 
public  opinion  for  the  slave-trade.  They  will  be  ready 
for  Jeff.  Davis,  and  Stephens,  and  other  leaders  of  that 
company,  to  sound  the  bugle  for  the  revival  of  the  slave- 
trade,  for  the  second  Dred  Scott  decision,  for  the  flood  of 
slavery  to  be  poured  over  the  free  states,  while  we  shall 
be  here  tied  down,  and  helpless,  and  run  over  like  sheep. 

It  is  to  be  a  part  and  parcel  of  this  same  idea,  to  say 
to  men  who  want  to  adhere  to  the  Democratic  party,  who 
have  always  belonged  to  that  party,  and  are  only  looking 
about  for  some  excuse  to  stick  to  it,  but  nevertheless  hate 


248.       LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

slavery,  that  Douglas's  popular  sovereignty  is  as  good  a 
way  as  any  to  oppose  slavery.  They  allow  themselves  to 
be  persuaded  easily  in  accordance  with  their  previous 
dispositions,  into  this  belief,  that  it  is  about  as  good  a 
way  of  opposing  slavery  as  any,  and  we  can  do  that  with- 
out straining  our  old  party  ties  or  breaking  up  old  polit- 
ical associations.  We  can  do  so  without  being  called 
negro-worshipers.  We  can  do  that  without  being  sub- 
jected to  the  jibes  and  sneers  that  are  so  readily  thrown 
out  in  place  of  argument  where  no  argument  can  be 
found.  So  let  us  stick  to  this  popular  sovereignty — this 
insidious  popular  sovereignty. 

Now  let  me  call  your  attention  to  one  thing  that  has 
really  happened,  which  shows  this  gradual  and  steady 
debauching  of  public  opinion,  this  course  of  preparation 
for  the  revival  of  the  slave-trade,  for  the  territorial  slave 
code,  and  the  new  Dred  Scott  decision  that  is  to  carry 
slavery  into  the  free  states.  Did  you  ever,  five  years 
ago,  hear  of  anybody  in  the  world  saying  that  the  negro 
had  no  share  in  the  Declaration  of  National  Independ- 
ence ;  that  it  did  not  mean  negroes  at  all  ;  and  when 
"  all  men  "  were  spoken  of,  negroes  were  not  included  ? 

I  am  satisfied  that,  five  years  ago,  that  proposition  was 
not  put  upon  paper  by  any  living  being  anywhere.  I 
have  been  unable  at  any  time,  to  find  a  man  in  an  audi- 
ence who  would  declare  that  he  had  ever  known  of  any- 
body saying  so  five  years  ago.  But,  last  year,  there  was 
not  a  Douglas  popular  sovereign  in  Illinois  who  did  not 
say  it.  Is  there  one  in  Ohio  but  declares  his  firm  belief 
that  the  Declaration  of  Independence  did  not  mean  ne- 
groes at  all?  I  do  not  know  how  this  is;  I  have  not 
been  here  much  ;  but  I  presume  you  are  very  much 
alike  everywhere.  Then  I  suppose  that  all  now  express 
the  belief  that  the  Declaration  of  Independence  never 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        249 

did  mean  negroes.  I  call  upon  one  of  them  to  say  that 
he  said  it  five  years  ago. 

If  you  think  that  now,  and  did  not  think  it  then,  the 
next  thing  that  strikes  me  is  to  remark  that  there  has 
been  a  change  wrought  in  you,  and  a  very  significant 
change  it  is,  being  no  less  than  changing  the  negro,  in 
your  estimation,  from  the  rank  of  a  man  to  that  of  a 
brute.  They  are  taking  him  down,  and  placing  him, 
when  spoken  of,  among  reptiles  and  crocodiles,  as  Judge 
Douglas  himself  expresses  it. 

Is  not  this  change  wrought  in  your  minds  a  very  im- 
portant change?  Public  opinion  in  this  country  is  every- 
thing. In  a  nation  like  ours,  this  popular  sovereignty 
and  squatter  sovereignty  have  already  wrought  a  change 
in  the  public  mind  to  the  extent  I  have  stated.  There 
is  no  man  in  this  crowd  who  can  contradict  it. 

Now,  if  you  are  opposed  to  slavery  honestly,  as  much 
as  anybody,  I  ask  you  to  note  that  fact,  and  the  like  of 
which  is  to  follow,  to  be  plastered  on,  layer  after  layer, 
until  very  soon  you  are  prepared  to  deal  with  the  negro 
everywhere  as  with  the  brute.  If  public  sentiment  has 
not  been  debauched  already  to  this  point,  a  new  turn  of 
the  screw  in  that  direction  is  all  that  is  wanting  ;  and 
this  is  constantly  being  done  by  the  teachers  of  this  in- 
sidious popular  sovereignty.  You  need  but  one  or  two 
turns  further  until  your  minds,  now  ripening  under  these 
teachings,  will  be  ready  for  all  these  things,  and  you  will 
receive  and  support,  or  submit  to,  the  slave-trade,  revived 
with  all  its  horrors,  a  slave  code  enforced  in  our  territo- 
ries, and  a  new  Dred  Scott  decision  to  bring  slavery  up 
into  the  very  heart  of  the  free  North. 

This,  I  must  say,  is  but  carrying  out  those  words  pro- 
phetically spoken  by  Mr.  Clay,  many,  many  years  ago — I 
believe  more  than  thirty  years — when  he  told  an  audience 


250        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

that  if  they  repress  all  tendencies  to  liberty  and  ultimate 
emancipation,  they  must  go  back  to  the  era  of  our  inde- 
pendence and  muzzle  the  cannon  which  thundered  its 
annual  joyous  return  on  the  Fourth  of  July  ;  they  must 
blow  out  the  moral  lights  around  us  ;  they  must  pene- 
trate the  human  soul,  and  eradicate  the  love  of  liberty ; 
but  until  they  did  these  things,  and  others  eloquently 
enumerated  by  him,  they  could  not  repress  all  tendencies 
to  ultimate  emancipation. 

I  ask  attention  to  the  fact  that  in  a  pre-eminent  degree 
these  popular  sovereigns  are  at  this  work  ;  blowing  out 
the  moral  lights  around  us  ;  teaching  that  the  negro  is 
no  longer  a  man,  but  a  brute;  that  the  Declaration  has 
nothing  to  do  with  him;  that  he  ranks  with  the  crocodile 
and  the  reptile;  that  man,  with  body  and  soul,  is  a  mat- 
ter of  dollars  and  cents.  I  suggest  to  this  portion  of  the 
Ohio  Republicans,  or  Democrats,  if  there  be  any  present, 
the  serious  consideration  of  this  fact,  that  there  is  now 
going  on  among  you  a  steady  process  of  debauching  pub- 
lic opinion  on  this  subject.  With  this,  my  friends,  I  bid 
you  adieu. 


DELIVERED  AT  PEORIA,  ILLINOIS,  OCTOBER  16,  1854, 

IN  REPLY  TO  JUDGE  DOUGLAS. 


[From  the  Daily  (Springfield)  IJU»oi»  Journal,  of  October  21,  1854.] 

On  Monday,  October  16,  Senator  DOUGLAS,  by  appointment,  ad- 
dressed a  large  audience  at  Peoria.  When  he  closed,  he  was 
greeted  with  six  hearty  cheer?,  and  the  band  in  attendance 
played  a  stirring  air.  The  crowd  then  began  to  call  for  LIN- 
COLN, who,  as  Judge  Douglas  had  announced,  was,  by  agree- 
ment, to  answer  him.  Mr.  Lincoln  then  took  the  stand,  and 
said  : 

I  DO  not  rise  to  speak  now,  if  I  can  stipulate  with  the 
audience  to  meet  me  here  at  half-past  six  or  at  seven 
o'clock.  It  is  now  several  minutes  past  five,  and  Judge 
Douglas  has  spoken  over  three  hours.  If  you  hear  me 
at  all,  I  wish  you  to  hear  me  through.  It  will  take  me 
as  long  as  it  has  taken  him.  That  will  carry  us  beyond 
eight  o'clock  at  night.  Now  every  one  of  you  who  can 
remain  that  long,  can  just  as  well  get  his  supper,  meet 
me  at  seven,  and  remain  one  hour  or  two  later.  The 
judge  has  already  informed  you  that  he  is  to  have  an 
hour  to  reply  to  me.  I  doubt  not  but  you  have  been  a 
little  surprised  to  learn  that  I  have  consented  to  give 
one  of  his  high  reputation  and  known  ability  this  ad- 

(251) 


252        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

vantage  of  me.  Indeed,  my  consenting  to  it,  though 
reluctant,  was  not  •wholly  unselfish;  for  I  suspected,  if  it 
were  understood,  that  the  judge  was  entirely  done,  you 
Democrats  would  leave  and  not  hear  me;  but  by  giving 
him  the  close,  I  felt  confident  you  would  stay  for  the  fun 
of  hearing  him  skin  me. 

[The  audience  signified  their  assent  to  the  arrangement, 
and  adjourned  to  seven  o'clock  P.  M.,  at  which  time  they 
reassembled,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  spoke  substantially  as  fol- 
lows :] 

The  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  and  the  pro- 
priety of  its  restoration,  constitute  the  subject  of  what  I 
am  about  to  say. 

As  I  desire  to  present  my  own  connected  view  of  this 
subject,  my  remarks  will  not  be  specifically  an  answer  to 
Judge  Douglas  ;  yet  as  I  proceed,  the  main  points  he 
has  presented  will  arise,  and  will  receive  such  respectful 
attention  as  I  may  be  able  to  give  them. 

I  wish  further  to  say  that  I  do  not  propose  to  question 
the  patriotism,  or  to  assail  the  motives  of  any  man  or 
class  of  men,  but  rather  to  confine  myself  strictly  to  the 
naked  merits  of  the  question. 

I  also  wish  to  be  no  less  than  national  in  all  the  posi- 
tions I  may  take,  and  whenever  I  take  ground  which 
others  have  thought,  or  may  think,  narrow,  sectional, 
and  dangerous  to  the  Union,  I  hope  to  give  a  reason, 
which  will  appear  sufficient,  at  least  to  some,  why  I  think 
differently. 

And  as  this  subject  is  no  other  than  part  and  parcel 
of  the  larger  general  question  of  domestic  slavery,  I  wish 
to  MAKE  and  to  KEEP  the  distinction  between  the  EXIST- 
ING institution  and  the  EXTENSION  of  it,  so  broad  and  so 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        253 

clear,  that  no  honest  man  can  misunderstand  me,  and  no 
dishonest  one  successfully  misrepresent  me. 

In  order  to  a  clear  understanding  of  what  the  Missouri 
Compromise  is,  a  short  history  of  the  preceding  kindred 
subjects  will  perhaps  be  proper. 

When  we  established  our  independence,  we  did  not 
own  or  claim  the  country  to  which  this  compromise  ap- 
plies. Indeed,  strictly  speaking,  the  Confederacy  then 
owned  no  country  at  all ;  the  states  respectively  owned 
the  country  within  their  limits,  and  some  of  them  owned 
territory  beyond  their  strict  state  limits.  Virginia  thus 
owned  the  Northwestern  Territory — the  country  out  of 
which  the  principal  part  of  Ohio,  all  Indiana,  all  Illinois, 
all  Michigan,  and  all  Wisconsin,  have  since  been  formed. 
She  also  owned  (perhaps  within  her  then  limits)  what 
has  since  been  formed  into  the  State  of  Kentucky. 
North  Carolina  thus  owned  what  is  now  the  State  of 
Tennessee;  and  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  owned,  in 
separate  parts,  what  are  now  Mississippi  and  Alabama. 
Connecticut,  I  think,  owned  the  little  remaining  part  of 
Ohio — being  the  same  where  they  now  send  Giddings 
to  Congress,  and  beat  all  creation  at  making  cheese. 

These  territories,  together  with  the  states  themselves, 
constituted  all  the  country  over  which  the  Confederacy 
then  claimed  any  sort  of  jurisdiction.  We  were  then 
living  under  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  which  were 
superseded  by  the  Constitution  several  years  afterward. 
The  question  of  ceding  these  territories  to  the  General 
Government  was  set  on  foot.  Mr.  Jefferson — the  author 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  otherwise  a 
chief  actor  in  the  Revolution  ;  then  a  delegate  in  Con- 
gress ;  afterward,  twice  President;  who  was,  is,  and  per- 
haps will  continue  to  be,  the  most  distinguished  politi- 
cian of  our  history;  a  Virginian  by  birth  and  continued 


254       LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

residence,  and  withal  a  slaveholder — conceived  the  idea 
of  taking  that  occasion  to  prevent  slavery  ever  going 
into  the  Northwestern  Territory.  He  prevailed  on  the 
Virginia  Legislature  to  adopt  his  views,  and  to  cede  the 
territory,  making  the  prohibition  of  slavery  therein  a 
condition  of  the  deed.  Congress  accepted  the  cession 
with  the  condition ;  and  in  the  first  ordinance  (which  the 
acts  of  Congress  were  then  called)  for  the  government  of 
the  territory,  provided  that  slavery  should  never  be  per- 
mitted therein.  This  is  the  famed  "  Ordinance  of  '87," 
BO  often  spoken  of. 

Thenceforward  for  sixty-one  years,  and  until,  in  1848, 
the  last  scrap  of  this  territory  came  into  the  Union  as 
the  State  of  Wisconsin,  all  parties  acted  in  quiet  obedi- 
ence to  this  ordinance.  It  is  now  what  Jefferson  fore- 
saw and  intended — the  happy  home  of  teeming  millions 
of  free,  white,  prosperous  people,  and  no  slave  among  them. 

Thus,  with  the  author  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, the  policy  of  prohibiting  slavery  in  new  territory 
originated.  Thus,  away  back  of  the  Constitution,  in  the 
pure,  fresh,  free  breath  of  the  Revolution,  the  State  of 
Virginia  and  the  National  Congress  put  that  policy  in 
^practice.  Thus,  through  more  than  sixty  of  the  best 
years  of  the  Republic,  did  that  policy  steadily  work  to 
its  great  and  beneficent  end.  And  thus,  in  those  five 
states,  and  five  millions  of  free,  enterprising  people,  we 
have  before  us  the  rich  fruits  of  this  policy. 

But  note,  new  light  breaks  upon  us.  Now  Congress 
declares  this  ought  never  to  have  been,  and  the  like  of  it 
must  never  be  again.  The  sacred  right  of  self-govern- 
ment is  grossly  violated  by  it.  We  even  find  some  men, 
who  drew  their  first  breath,  and  every  other  breath  of 

*  Mr.  Lincoln  authorizes  the  correction  of  the  error  into  which  the  report 
here  falls,  with  regard  to  tho  prohibition  being  made  a  condition  of  the  deed. 
It  was  not  a  condition. 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        255 

their  lives,  under  this  very  restriction,  now  live  in  dread 
of  absolute  suffocation,  if  they  should  be  restricted  in  the 
"  sacred  right"  of  taking  slaves  to  Nebraska.  That  per- 
fect liberty  they  sigh  for — the  liberty  of  making  slaves 
of  other  people — Jefferson  never  thought  of;  their  own 
fathers  never  thought  of;  they  never  thought  of  them- 
selves, a  year  ago.  How  fortunate  for  them  they  did 
not  sooner  become  sensible  of  their  great  misery  !  O, 
how  difficult  it  is  to  treat  with  respect  such  assaults  upon 
all  we  have  ever  really  held  sacred. 

But  to  return  to  history.  In  1803  we  purchased  what 
was  then  called  Louisiana,  of  France.  It  included  the 
present  states  of  Louisiana,  Arkansas,  Missouri,  and 
Iowa;  also  the  territory  of  Minnesota,  and  the  present 
bone  of  contention,  Kansas  and  Nebraska.  Slavery 
already  existed  among  the  French  at  New  Orleans ;  and 
to  some  extent,  at  St.  Louis.  In  1812,  Louisiana  came 
into  the  Union  as  a  slave  state,  without  controversy.  In 
1818  or  '19,  Missouri  showed  signs  of  a  wish  to  come  in 
with  slavery.  This  was  resisted  by  Northern  members 
of  Congress;  and  thus  began  the  first  great  slavery 
agitation  in  the  nation.  This  controversy  lasted  several 
months,  and  became  very  angry  and  exciting  ;  the  House 
of  Representatives  voting  steadily  for  the  prohibition  of 
slavery  in  Missouri,  and  the  Senate  voting  as  steadily 
against  it.  Threats  of  breaking  up  the  Union  were 
freely  made ;  and  the  ablest  public  men  of  the  day  be- 
came seriously  alarmed.  At  length  a  compromise  was 
made,  in  which,  as  in  all  compromises,  both  sides  yielded 
something.  It  was  a  law  passed  on  the  6th  day  of  March, 
1820,  providing  that  Missouri  might  come  into  the  Union 
with  slavery,  but  that  in  all  the  remaining  part  of  the 
territory  purchased  of  France,  which  lies  north  of  thirty- 
six  degrees  and  thirty  minutes  north  latitude,  slavery 
should  never  be  permitted.  This  provision  of  law  is  (ha 


256        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

Missouri  Compromise.  In  excluding  slavery  north  of  the 
line,  the  same  language  is  employed  as  in  the  ordinance 
of  '87.  It  directly  applied  to  Iowa,  Minnesota,  and  to 
the  present  bone  of  contention,  Kansas  and  Nebraska. 
Whether  there  should  or  should  not  be  slavery  South  of 
that  line,  nothing  was  said  in  the  law.  But  Arkansas 
constituted  the  principal  remaining  part,  south  of  the 
line ;  and  it  has  since  been  admitted  as  a  slave  state, 
without  serious  controversy.  More  recently,  Iowa,  north 
of  the  line,  came  in  as  a  free  state,  without  controversy. 
Still  later,  Minnesota,  north  of  the  line,  had  a  territorial 
organization  without  controversy.  Texas,  principally 
south  of  the  line,  and  west  of  Arkansas,  though  origi- 
nally within  the  purchase  from  France,  had,  in  1819, 
been  traded  off  to  Spain,  in  our  treaty  for  the  acquisition 
of  Florida.  It  had  thus  become  a  part  of  Mexico.  Mex- 
ico revolutionized,  and  became  independent  of  Spain. 
American  citizens  began  settling  rapidly  with  their  slaves 
in  the  Southern  part  of  Texas.  Soon  they  revolution- 
ized against  Mexico,  and  established  an  independent 
government  of  their  own,  adopting  a  Constitution,  with 
slavery,  strongly  resembling  the  Constitutions  of  our 
slave  states.  By  still  another  rapid  move,  Texas,  claim- 
ing a  boundary  much  further  west  than  when  we  parted 
with  her  in  1819,  was  brought  back  to  the  United  States, 
and  admitted  into  the  Union  as  a  slave  state.  Then 
there  was  little  or  no  settlement  in  the  northern  part 
of  Texas,  a  considerable  portion  of  which  lay  north  of 
the  Missouri  line;  and  in  the  resolutions  admitting  her 
into  the  Union,  the  Missouri  restriction  was  expressly 
extended  westward  across  her  territory.  This  was  in 
1845,  only  nine  years  ago. 

Thus  originated  the  Missouri  Compromise ;  and  thus 
has  it  been  respected  down   to  1845.     And  even  four 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.       257 

years  later,  in  1489,  our  distinguished  senator,  in  a 
public  address,  held  the  following  language  in  relation 
to  it: 

"The  Missouri  Compromise  had  been  in  practical  operation 
for  about  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  had  received  the  sanction 
and  approbation  of  men  of  all  parties  in  every  section  of  the 
Union.  It  had  allayed  all  sectional  jealousies  and  irritations, 
growing  out  of  this  vexed  question,  and  harmonized  and  tran- 
quilized  the  whole  country.  It  had  given  to  Henry  Clay,  as  its 
prominent  champion,  the  proud  soubriquet  of  the  'Great  Pacifi- 
cator,' and  by  that  title,  and  for  that  service,  his  political  friends 
had  repeatedly  appealed  to  the  people  to  rally  under  his  standard, 
as  a  Presidential  candidate,  as  the  man  who  had  exhibited  the 
patriotism  and  the  power  to  suppress  an  unholy  and  treasonable 
agitation,  and  preserve  the  Union.  He  was  not  aware  that  any 
man,  or  any  party  from  any  section  of  the  Union,  had  ever  urged 
as  an  objection  to  Mr.  Clay,  that  he  was  the  great  champion  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise.  On  the  contrary,  the  effort  was  made 
by  the  opponents  of  Mr.  Clay,  to  prove  that  he  was  not  entitled 
to  the  exclusive  merit  of  that  great  patriotic  measure ;  and  that 
the  honor  was  equally  due  to  others,  as  well  as  to  him,  for 
securing  its  adoption — that  it  had  its  origin  in  the  hearts  of 
all  patriotic  men,  who  desired  to  preserve  and  perpetuate  the 
blessings  of  our  glorious  Union — an  origin  akin  to  that  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  conceived  in  the  same  spirit 
of  fraternal  affection,  and  calculated  to  remove  forever  the  only 
danger,  which  seemed  to  threaten,  at  some  distant  day,  to  sever 
the  social  bond  of  Union.  All  the  evidences  of  public  opinion 
at  that  day  seemed  to  indicate  that  this  Compromise  had  been 
canonized  in  the  hearts  of  the  American  people,  as  a  sacred 
thing,  which  no  ruthless  hand  would  ever  be  reckless  enough 
to  disturb." 

I  do  not  read  this  extract  to  involve  Judge  Douglas 
in  an  inconsistency.  If  he  afterward  thought  he  had 
been  wrong,  it  was  right  for  him  to  change — I  bring 
this  forward  merely  to  show  the  high  estimate  placed  on 

99 


258       LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

the  Missouri  Compromise  by  all  parties  up  to  so  late  as 
the  year  1849. 

But  going  back  a  little,  in  point  of  time.  Our  war 
with  Mexico  broke  out  in  1846.  When  Congress  was 
about  adjourning  that  session,  President  Polk  asked 
them  to  place  two  millions  of  dollars  under  his  control, 
to  be  used  by  him  in  the  recess,  if  found  practicable 
and  expedient,  in  negotiating  a  treaty  of  peace  with 
Mexico,  and  acquiring  some  part  of  her  territory.  A 
bill  was  duly  gotten  up  for  the  purpose,  and  was  pro- 
gressing swimmingly  in  the  House  of  Uepresentatives, 
when  a  member  by  the  name  of  David  Wilmot,  a  Dem- 
ocrat from  Pennsylvania,  moved  as  an  amendment, 
"  Provided,  that  in  any  territory  thus  acquired,  there 
shall  never  be  slavery." 

This  is  the  origin  of  the  far-famed  "Wilmot  Proviso." 
It  created  a  great  flutter ;  but  it  stuck  like  wax,  was 
voted  into  the  bill,  and  the  bill  passed  with  it  through 
the  House.  The  Senate,  however,  adjourned  without 
final  action  on  it,  and  so  both  appropriation  and  proviso 
were  lost,  for  the  time.  The  war  continued,  and  at  the 
next  session  the  President  renewed  his  request  for  the 
appropriation,  enlarging  the  amount,  I  think,  to  three 
millions.  Again  came  the  proviso,  and  defeated  the 
measure.  Congress  adjourned  again,  and  the  war  went 
on.  In  December,  1847,  the  new  Congress  assembled. 
I  was  in  the  lower  House  that  term.  The  "Wilmot 
Proviso,"  or  the  principle  of  it,  was  constantly  coming 
up  in  some  shape  or  other,  and  I  think  I  may  venture 
to  say  I  voted  for  it  at  least  forty  times,  during  the 
short  term  I  was  there.  The  Senate,  however,  held  it 
in  check,  and  it  never  became  a  law.  In  the  spring  of 
1848  a  treaty  of  peace  was  made  with  Mexico,  by  which 
we  obtained  that  portion  of  her  country  which  now  con- 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.        259 

stitutes  the  territories  of  New  Mexico  and  Utah,  and 
the  present  State  of  California.  By  this  treaty  the 
"Wilmot  Proviso"  was  defeated,  in  so  far  as  it  was  in- 
tended to  be  a  condition  of  the  acquisition  of  territory. 
Its  friends,  however,  were  still  determined  to  find  some 
way  to  restrain  slavery  from  getting  into  the  new 
country.  This  new  acquisition  lay  directly  west  of  our 
old  purchase  from  France,  and  extended  west  to  the 
Pacific  Ocean — and  was  so  situated  that  if  the  Missouri 
line  should  be  extended  straight  west,  the  new  country 
would  be  divided  by  such  extended  line,  leaving  some 
north  and  some  south  of  it.  On  Judge  Douglas's  mo- 
tion, a  bill,  or  provision  of  a  bill,  passed  the  Senate  to 
so  extend  the  Missouri  line.  The  Proviso  men  in  the 
House,  including  myself,  voted  it  down,  because,  by  im- 
plication, it  gave  up  the  southern  part  to  slavery,  while 
we  were  bent  on  having  it  all  free. 

In  the  fall  of  1848,  the  gold  mines  were  discovered  in 
California.  This  attracted  people  to  it  with  unprece- 
dented rapidity,  so  that  on,  or  soon  after  the  meeting 
of  the  new  Congress  in  December,  1849,  she  already  had 
a  population  of  nearly  a  hundred  thousand,  had  called 
a  convention,  formed  a  State  Constitution,  excluding 
slavery,  and  was  knocking  for  admission  into  the  Union. 
The  Proviso  men,  of  course,  were  for  letting  her  in,  but 
the  Senate,  always  true  to  the  other  side,  would  not  con- 
sent to  her  admission.  And  there  California  stood,  kept 
out  of  the  Union,  because  she  would  not  let  slavery  into 
her  borders.  Under  all  the  circumstances,  perhaps  this 
was  not  wrong.  There  were  other  points  of  dispute  con- 
nected with  the  general  question  of  slavery,  which  equal- 
ly needed  adjustment.  The  South  clamored  for  a  more 
efficient  fugitive  slave  law.  The  North  clamored  for  the 
abolition  of  a  peculiar  species  of  slave-trade  in  the  Dis- 


260       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OP  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

trict  of  Columbia,  in  connection  with  which,  in  view 
from  the  windows  of  the  Capitol,  a  sort  of  negro  livery- 
stable,  where  droves  of  negroes  were  collected,  tempora- 
rily kept,  and  finally  taken  to  Southern  markets,  pre- 
cisely like  droves  of  horses,  had  been  openly  maintained 
for  fifty  years.  Utah  and  New  Mexico  needed  territo- 
rial governments;  and  whether  slavery  should  or  should 
not  be  prohibited  within  them  was  another  question. 
The  indefinite  western  boundary  of  Texas  was  to  be 
settled.  She  was  a  slave  state,  and  consequently  the 
farther  west  the  slavery  men  could  push  her  boundary, 
the  more  slave  country  they  secured  ;  and  the  farther 
east  the  slavery  opponents  could  thrust  the  boundary 
back,  the  less  slave  ground  was  secured.  Thus  this  was 
just  as  clearly  a  slavery  question  as  any  of  the  others. 

These  points  all  needed  adjustment ;  and  they  were 
all  held  up,  perhaps  wisely,  to  make  them  help  to  adjust 
one  another.  The  Union  now,  as  in  1820,  was  thought 
to  be  in  danger;  and  devotion  to  the  Union  rightfully 
inclined  men  to  yield  somewhat,  in  points,  where  nothing 
else  could  have  so  inclined  them.  A  compromise  was 
finally  effected.  The  South  got  their  new  fugitive  slave 
law;  and  the  North  got  California  (by  far  the  best 
part  of  our  acquisition  from  Mexico)  as  a  free  state. 
The  South  got  a  provision  that  New  Mexico  and  Utah, 
when  admitted  as  states,  may  come  in  with  or  iciithout 
slavery  as  they  may  then  choose  ;  and  the  North  got  the 
slave-trade  abolished  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  The 
North  got  the  western  boundary  of  Texas  thrown  farther 
back  eastward  than  the  South  desired;  but,  in  turn,  they 
gave  Texas  ten  millions  of  dollars,  with  which  to  pay 
her  old  debts.  This  is  the  Compromise  of  1850. 

Preceding  the  Presidential  election  of  1852,  each  of 
the  great  political  parties,  Democrats  and  Whigs,  met 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.       261 

in  convention,  and  adopted  resolutions  indorsing  the 
Compromise  of  '50,  as  a  "finality,"  a  final  settlement, 
so  far  as  these  parties  could  make  it  so,  of  all  slavery 
agitation.  Previous  to  this,  in  1851,  the  Illinois  Legis- 
lature had  indorsed  it. 

During  this  long  period  of  time,  Nebraska  had  re- 
mained substantially  an  uninhabited  country,  but  now 
emigration  to,  and  settlement  within  it  began  to  take 
place.  It  is  about  one-third  as  large  as  the  present 
United  States,  and  its  importance  so  long  overlooked, 
begins  to  come  into  view.  The  restriction  of  slavery  by 
the  Missouri  Compromise  directly  applies  to  it ;  in  fact, 
was  first  made,  and  has  since  been  maintained  expressly 
for  it.  In  1853,  a  bill  to  give  it  a  territorial  govern- 
ment passed  the  House  of  Representatives,  and,  in  the 
hands  of  Judge  Douglas,  failed  of  passing  only  for  want 
of  time.  This  bill  contained  no  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise.  Indeed,  when  it  was  assailed  because  it 
did  contain  such  repeal,  Judge  Douglas  defended  it  in 
its  existing  form.  On  January  4th,  1854,  Judge  Doug- 
las introduces  a  new  bill  to  give  Nebraska  territorial 
government.  He  accompanies  this  bill  with  a  report, 
in  which  last,  he  expressly  recommends  that  the  Mis- 
souri Compromise  shall  neither  be  affirmed  nor  repealed. 

Before  long  the  bill  is  so  modified  as  to  make  two 
territories  instead  of  one,  calling  the  southern  one 
Kansas. 

Also,  about  a  month  after  the  introduction  of  the  bill, 
on  the  judge's  own  motion,  it  is  so  amended  as  to 
declare  the  Missouri  Compromise  inoperative  and  void; 
and,  substantially,  that  the  people  who  go  and  settle 
there  may  establish  slavery,  or  exclude  it,  as  they  may 
see  fit.  In  this  shape,  the  bill  passed  both  branches  of 
Congress  and  became  a  law. 


262      LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OP   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

This  is  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise.  The 
foregoing  history  may  not  be  precisely  accurate  in  every 
particular;  but  I  am  sure  it  is  sufficiently  so,  for  all  the 
use  I  shall  attempt  to  make  of  it ;  and  in  it  we  have 
before  us  the  chief  material  enabling  us  to  judge  cor- 
rectly whether  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise 
is  right  or  wrong. 

I  think,  and  shall  try  to  show,  that  it  is  wrong  ;  wrong 
in  its  direct  effect,  letting  slavery  into  Kansas  and  Ne- 
braska, and  wrong  in  its  prospective  principle,  allowing 
it  to  spread  to  every  other  part  of  the  wide  world,  where 
men  can  be  found  inclined  to  take  it. 

This  declared  indifference,  but  as  I  must  think,  covert 
real  zeal  for  the  spread  of  slavery,  I  can  not  but  hate. 
I  hate  it  because  of  the  monstrous  injustice  of  slavery 
itself.  I  hate  it  because  it  deprives  our  republican  ex- 
ample of  its  just  influence  in  the  world ;  enables  the 
enemies  of  free  institutions,  with  plausibility  to  taunt  us 
as  hypocrites ;  causes  the  real  friends  of  freedom  to 
doubt  our  sincerity  ;  and  especially  because  it  forces  so 
many  really  good  men  among  ourselves  into  an  open 
war  with  the  very  fundamental  principles  of  civil  liberty, 
criticising  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  insist- 
ing that  there  is  no  right  principle  of  action  but  self- 
interest. 

Before  proceeding,  let  me  say  I  think  I  have  no  prej- 
udice against  the  Southern  people.  They  are  just 
what  we  would  be  in  their  situation.  If  slavery  did  not 
now  exist  among  them,  they  would  not  introduce  it.  If 
it  did  now  exist  among  us,  we  should  not  instantly  give 
it  up.  This  I  believe  of  the  masses  North  and  South. 
Doubtless  there  are  individuals,  on  both  sides,  who 
would  not  hold  slaves  under  any  circumstances,  and 
others  who  would  gladly  introduce  slavery  anew,  if  it 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.       263 

were  out  of  existence.  We  know  that  some  Southern 
men  do  free  their  slaves,  go  north,  and  become  tip -top 
abolitionists ;  while  some  Northern  ones  go  south,  and 
become  most  cruel  slave-masters. 

When  Southern  people  tell  us  they  are  no  more  respon- 
sible for  the  origin  of  slavery  than  we  are,  I  acknowl- 
edge the  fact.  When  it  is  said  that  the  institution 
exists,  and  that  it  is  very  difficult  to  get  rid  of  it  in  any 
satisfactory  way,  I  can  understand  and  appreciate  the 
saying.  I  surely  will  not  blame  them  for  not  doing 
what  I  should  not  know  how  to  do  myself.  If  all 
earthly  power  were  given  me,  I  should  not  know  what 
to  do,  as  to  the  existing  institution.  My  first  impulse 
would  be  to  free  all  the  slaves,  and  send  them  to  Libe- 
ria— to  their  own  native  land.  But  a  moment's  reflec- 
tion would  convince  me,  that  whatever  of  high  hope 
(as  I  think  there  is)  there  may  be  in  this  in  the  long 
run,  its  sudden  execution  is  impossible.  If  they  were 
all  landed  there  in  a  day,  they  would  all  perish  in  the 
next  ten  days,  and  there  are  not  surplus  shipping  and 
surplus  money  enough  to  carry  them  there  in  many 
times  ten  days.  What  then  ?  Free  them  all,  and  keep 
them  among  us  as  underlings?  Is  it  quite  certain  that 
this  betters  their  condition  ?  I  think  I  would  not  hold 
one  in  slavery,  at  any  rate  ;  yet  the  point  is  not  clear 
enough  for  me  to  denounce  people  upon.  What  next? 
Free  them,  and  make  them  politically  and  socially  our 
equals?  My  own  feelings  will  not  admit  of  this;  and 
if  mine  would,  we  well  know  that  those  of  the  great 
mass  of  white  people  will  not.  Whether  this  feeling 
accords  with  justice  and  sound  judgment,  is  not  the  sole 
question,  if  indeed,  it  is  any  part  of  it.  A  universal 
feeling,  whether  well  or  ill-founded,  can  not  be  safely 
disregarded.  We  can  not,  then,  make  them  equals.  It 


264      LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

does  seem  to  me  that  systems  of  gradual  emancipation 
might  be  adopted;  but  for  their  tardiness  in  this,  I  will 
not  undertake  to  judge  our  brethren  of  the  South. 

When  they  remind  us  of  their  constitutional  rights, 
I  acknowledge  them,  not  grudgingly,  but  fully  and 
fairly ;  and  I  would  give  them  any  legislation  for  the 
reclaiming  of  their  fugitives,  which  should  not  in  its 
stringency  be  more  likely  to  carry  a  free  man  into  slav- 
ery, than  our  ordinary  criminal  laws  are  to  hang  an 
innocent  one. 

But  all  this,  to  my  judgment,  furnishes  no  more  ex- 
cuse for  permitting  slavery  to  go  into  our  own  free  ter- 
ritory, than  it  would  for  reviving  the  African  slave- 
trade  by  law.  The  law  which  forbids  the  bringing  of 
slaves  from  Africa,  and  that  which  has  so  long  forbid- 
den the  taking  of  them  into  Nebraska,  can  hardly  be 
distinguished  on  any  moral  principle  ;  and  the  repeal  of 
the  former  could  find  quite  as  plausible  excuses  as  that 
of  the  latter. 

The  arguments  by  which  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise  is  sought  to  be  justified,  are  these : 

First.  That  the  Nebraska  country  needed  a  territorial 
government. 

Second.  That  in  various  ways,  the  public  had  repudi- 
ated that  Compromise,  and  demanded  the  repeal,  and 
therefore  should  not  now  complain  of  it. 

And,  lastly.  That  the  repeal  establishes  a  principle 
which  is  intrinsically  right. 

I  will  attempt  an  answer  to  each  of  them  in  its  turn. 

First,  then.  If  that  country  was  in  need  of  a  territo- 
rial organization,  could  it  not  have  had  it  as  well  with- 
out as  with  the  repeal?  Iowa  and  Minnesota,  to  both 
of  which  the  Missouri  restriction  applied,  had,  without 
its  repeal,  each  in  succession,  territorial  organizations. 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.       265 

And  even  the  year  before,  a  bill  for  Nebraska  itself, 
was  within  an  ace  of  passing,  without  the  repealing 
clause;  and  this  in  the  hands  of  the  same  men  who  aro 
now  the  champions  of  repeal.  Why  no  necessity  then 
for  the  repeal  ?  But  still  later,  when  this  very  bill  was 
first  brought  in,  it  contained  no  repeal.  But,  say  they, 
because  the  people  had  demanded,  or  rather  commanded 
the  repeal,  the  repeal  was  to  accompany  the  organiza- 
tion, whenever  that  should  occur. 

Now,  I  deny  that  the  public  ever  demanded  any  such, 
thing — ever  repudiated  the  Missouri  Compromise — ever 
commanded  its  repeal.  I  deny  it,  and  call  for  the  proof. 
It  is  not  contended,  I  believe,  that  any  such  command 
has  ever  been  given  in  express  terms.  It  is  only  said 
that  it  was  done  in  principle.  The  support  of  the  Wil- 
mot  Proviso  is  the  first  fact  mentioned,  to  prove  that 
the  Missouri  restriction  was  repudiated  in  principle,  and 
the  second  is,  the  refusal  to  extend  the  Missouri  lino 
over  the  country  acquired  from  Mexico.  These  are 
near  enough  alike  to  be  treated  together.  The  one  was 
to  exclude  the  chances  of  slavery  from  the  whole  new 
acquisition  by  the  lump,  and  the  other  was  to  reject  a 
division  of  it,  by  which  one  half  was  to  be  given  up  to 
those  chances.  Now,  whether  this  was  a  repudiation  of 
the  Missouri  line,  in  principle,  depends  upon  whether 
the  Missouri  law  contained  any  principle  requiring  the 
line  to  be  extended  over  the  country  acquired  from 
Mexico.  I  contend  it  did  not.  I  insist  that  it  con- 
tained no  general  principle,  but  that  it  was,  in  every 
sense,  specific.  That  its  terms  limit  it  to  the  country 
purchased  from  France,  is  undenied  and  undeniable.  It 
could  have  no  principle  beyond  the  intention  of  those 
who  made  it.  They  did  not  intend  to  extend  the  line  to 
country  which  they  did  not  own.  If  they  intended  to 
23 


266       LIFE    AND    SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLX. 

extend  it,  in  the  event  of  acquiring  additional  territory, 
why  did  they  not  say  so?  It  was  just  as  easy  to  say, 
that  ''in  all  the  country  west  of  the  Mississippi  which 
we  now  own  or  may  hereafter  acquire,  there  shall  never 
be  slavery,"  as  to  say  what  they  did  say;  and  they 
would  have  said  it,  if  they  had  meant  it.  An  intention 
to  extend  the  law  is  not  only  not  mentioned  in  the  law, 
but  is  not  mentioned  in  any  cotemporaneous  history. 
Both  the  law  itself  and  the  history  of  the  times  are  a 
blank  as  to  any  principle  of  extension  ;  and  by  neither 
the  known  rules  for  construing  statutes  and  contracts, 
nor  by  common  sense,  can  any  such  principle  be  in- 
ferred. 

Another  fact  showing  the  specific  character  of  the 
Missouri  law — showing  that  it  intended  no  more  than  it 
expressed  ;  showing  that  the  line  was  not  intended  as  a 
universal  dividing  line  between  free  and  slave  territory, 
present  and  prospective,  north  of  which  slavery  could 
never  go — is  the  fact  that,  by  that  very  law,  Missouri 
came  in  as  a  slave  state,  north  of  the  line.  If  that  law 
contained  any  prospective  principle,  the  whole  law  must 
be  looked  to  in  order  to  ascertain  what  the  principle  was. 
And  by  this  rule,  the  South  could  fairly  contend  that 
inasmuch  as  they  got  one  slave  state  north  of  the  line 
at  the  inception  of  the  law,  they  have  the  right  to  have 
another  given  them  north  of  it  occasionally,  now  and 
then,  in  the  indefinite  westward  extension  of  the  line. 
This  demonstrates  the  absurdity  of  attempting  to  deduce 
a  prospective  principle  from  the  Missouri  Compromise 
line. 

When  we  voted  for  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  we  were  vot- 
ing to  keep  slavery  out  of  the  whole  Mexican  acquisi- 
tion; and  little  did  we  think  we  were  thereby  voting  to 
let  it  into  Nebraska,  lying  several  hundred  miles  distant. 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.       267 

When  we  voted  against  extending  the  Missouri  line,  little 
did  we  think  we  were  voting  to  destroy  the  old  line,  then 
of  near  thirty  years'  standing. 

To  argue  that  we  thus  repudiated  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise is  no  less  absurd  than  it  would  be  to  argue  that 
because  we  have  so  far  forborne  to  acquire  Cuba,  we  have 
thereby,  in  principle,  repudiated  our  former  acquisitions, 
and  determined  to  throw  them  out  of  the  Union.  No 
less  absurd  than  it  would  be  to  say  that,  because  I  may 
have  refused  to  build  an  addition  to  my  house,  I  thereby 
have  decided  to  destroy  the  existing  house  !  And  if  I 
catch  you  setting  fire  to  my  house,  you  will  turn  upon 
me,  and  say  I  INSTRUCTED  you  to  do  it ! 

The  most  conclusive  argument,  however,  that,  while 
voting  for  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  and  while  voting  against 
the  EXTENSION  of  the  Missouri  line,  we  never  thought  of 
disturbing  the  original  Missouri  Compromise,  is  found  in 
the  fact  that  there  was  then,  and  still  is,  an  unorganized 
tract  of  fine  country,  nearly  as  large  as  the  State  of  Mis- 
souri, lying  immediately  West  of  Arkansas,  and  South 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise  line;  and  that  we  never 
attempted  to  prohibit  slavery  as  to  it.  I  wish  particular 
attention  to  this.  It  adjoins  the  original  Missouri  Com- 
promise line  by  its  Northern  boundary;  and  consequently 
is  part  of  the  country  into  which,  by  implication,  slavery 
was  permitted  to  go  by  that  Compromise.  There  it  has 
lain  open  ever  since,  and  there  it  still  lies ;  and  yet  no 
effort  has  been  made  at  any  time  to  wrest  it  from  the 
South.  In  all  our  struggles  to  prohibit  slavery  within 
our  Mexican  acquisitions,  we  never  so  much  as  lifted  a 
finger  to  prohibit  it  as  to  this  tract.  Is  not  this  entirely 
conclusive  that,  at  all  times,  we  have  held  the  Missouri 
Compromise  as  a  sacred  thing,  even  when  against  our- 
selves as  well  as  when  for  us  ? 


268       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OP   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

Senator  Douglas  sometimes  says  the  Missouri  line  it- 
self, was,  in  principle,  only  an  extension  of  the  line  of  the 
ordinance  of '87 — that  is  to  say,  an  extension  of  the 
Ohio  river.  I  think  this  is  weak  enough  on  its  face.  I 
will  remark,  however,  that,  as  a  glance  at  the  map  will 
show,  the  Missouri  line  is  a  long  way  farther  South 
than  the  Ohio,  and  that  if  our  Senator,  in  proposing  his 
extension,  had  stuck  to  the  principle  of  jogging  south- 
ward, perhaps  it  might  not  have  been  voted  down  so 
readily. 

But  next  it  is  said  that  the  Compromises  of  '50,  and 
the  ratification  of  them  by  both  political  parties  in  '52, 
established  a  new  principle,  which  required  the  repeal  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise.  This,  again,  I  deny.  I  deny 
it,  and  demand  the  proof.  I  have  already  stated  fully 
what  the  Compromises  of  '50  are.  The  particular  part 
of  those  measures  from  which  the  virtual  repeal  of  the 
Missouri  Compromise  is  sought  to  be  inferred,  (for  it  is 
admitted  they  contain  nothing  about  it,  in  express  terms.) 
is  the  provision  in  the  Utah  and  New  Mexico  laws,  which 
permits  them,  when  they  seek  admission  into  the  Union 
as  states,  to  come  in  with  or  without  slavery,  as  they  shall 
then  see  fit.  Now  I  insist  this  provision  was  made  for 
Utah  and  New  Mexico,  and  for  no  other  place  whatever. 
It  had  no  more  direct  reference  to  Nebraska  than  it  had 
to  the  territories  of  the  moon.  But,  say  they,  it  had 
reference  to  Nebraska,  in  principle.  Let  us  see.  The 
North  consented  to  this  provision,  not  because  they  con- 
sidered it  right  in  itself,  but  because  they  were  compen- 
sated— paid  for  it. 

They,  at  the  same  time,  got  California  into  the  Union 
as  a  free  state.  This  was  far  the  best  part  of  all  they 
had  struggled  for  by  the  Wilraot  Proviso.  They  also 
got  the  area  of  slavery  somewhat  narrowed  in  the  settle- 


LIFE  AND   SPEECHES   OP   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.       269 

ment  of  the  boundary  of  Texas.  Also,  they  got  the 
slave-trade  abolished  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 

For  all  these  desirable  objects,  the  North  could  afford 
to  yield  something  ;  and  they  did  yield  to  the  South  the 
Utah  and  New  Mexico  provision.  I  do  not  mean  that 
.•the  whole  North,  or  even  a  majority,  yielded,  when  the 
law  passed  ;  but  enough  yielded,  when  added  to  the  vote 
of  the  South,  to  carry  the  measure.  Now  can  it  be  pre- 
tended that  the  principle,  of  this  arrangement  requires  us 
to  permit  the  same  provision  to  be  applied  to  Nebraska, 
without  any  equivalent  at  all  ?  Give  us  another  free  state ; 
press  the  boundary  of  Texas  still  further  back  ;  give  us 
another  step  toward  the  destruction  of  slavery  in  the 
District,  and  you  present  us  a  similar  case.  But  ask  us 
not  to  repeat,  for  nothing,  what  you  paid  for  in  the  first 
instance.  If  you  wish  the  thing  again,  pay  again.  That 
is  the  principle  of  the  Compromises  of  '50,  if  indeed  they 
had  any  principles  beyond  their  specific  terms — it  was  the 
system  of  equivalents. 

Again,  if  Congress,  at  that  time,  intended  that  all  fu- 
ture territories  should,  when  admitted  as  states,  come  in 
with  or  without  slavery,  at  their  own  option,  why  did  it  not 
say  so  ?  With  such  an  universal  provision,  all  know  the 
bills  could  not  have  passed.  Did  they,  then — could  they 
— establish  a  principle  contrary  to  their  own  intention  ? 
Still  further  ;  if  they  intended  to  establish  the  principle 
that  wherever  Congress  had  control,  it  should  be  left  to 
the  people  to  do  as  they  thought  fit  with  slavery,  why 
did  they  not  authorize  the  people  of  the  District  of 
Columbia,  at  their  option,  to  abolish  slavery  within  their 
limits  ? 

I  personally  know  that  this  has  not  been  left  undone 
because  it  was  unthought  of.  It  was  frequently  spoken  of 
by  members  of  Congress,  and  by  citizens  of  Washington, 


270      LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

six  years  ago  ;  and  I  heard  no  one  express  a  doubt  that 
a  system  of  gradual  emancipation,  with  compensation  to 
owners,  would  meet  the  approbation  of  a  large  majority 
of  the  white  people  of  the  District.  But  without  the 
action  of  Congress  they  could  say  nothing  ;  and  Congress 
said  "No."  In  the  measures  of  1850,  Congress  had  the 
subject  of  slavery  in  the  District  expressly  on  hand.  If 
they  were  then  establishing  the  principle  of  allowing  the 
people  to  do  as  they  please  with  slavery,  why  did  they 
not  apply  the  principle  to  that  people  ? 

Again,  it  is  claimed  that  by  the  Resolutions  of  the 
Illinois  Legislature,  passed  in  1851,  the  repeal  of  the 
Missouri  Compromise  was  demanded.  This  I  deny  also. 
"Whatever  may  be  worked  out  by  a  criticism  of  the  lan- 
guage of  those  resolutions,  the  people  have  never  un- 
derstood them  as  being  any  more  than  an  indorsement 
of  the  Compromises  of  1850;  and  a  release  of  our  Sena- 
tors from  voting  for  the  Wiltnot  Proviso.  The  whole 
people  are  living  witnesses,  that  this  only  was  their  view. 
Finally,  it  is  asked,  "  If  we  did  not  mean  to  apply  the 
Utah  and  New  Mexico  provision  to  all  future  territories, 
what  did  we  mean  when  we,  in  1852,  indorsed  the  Com- 
promises of  1850?" 

For  myself,  I  can  answer  this  question  most  easily. 
I  meant  not  to  ask  a  repeal  or  modification  of  the  fugi- 
tive slave  law.  I  meant  not  to  ask  for  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  I  meant  not  to 
resist  the  admission  of  Utah  and  New  Mexico,  even 
should  they  ask  to  come  in  as  slave  states.  I  meant 
nothing  about  additional  territories,  because,  as  I  un- 
derstood, we  then  had  no  territory  whose  character  as  to 
slavery  was  not  already  settled.  As  to  Nebraska,  I 
regarded  its  character  as  being  fixed,  by  the  Missouri 
Compromise,  for  thirty  years — as  unalterably  fixed  as 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        271 

that  of  my  own  home  in  Illinois.  As  to  new  acquisitions, 
I  said,  "Sufficient  unto  the  day  is  the  evil  thereof." 
When  we  make  new  acquisitions,  we  will,  as  heretofore, 
try  to  manage  them  somehow.  That  is  my  answer ;  that 
is  what  I  meant  and  said;  and  I  appeal  to  the  people  to 
say  each  for  himself,  whether  that  was  not  also  the  uni- 
versal meaning  of  the  free  states. 

And  now,  in  turn,  let  me  ask  a  few  questions.  If, 
by  any  or  all  these  matters,  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise  was  commanded,  why  was  not  the  command 
sooner  obeyed  ?  Why  was  the  repeal  omitted  in  the 
Nebraska  bill  of  1853?  Why  was  it  omitted  in  the 
original  bill  of  1854?  Why,  in  the  accompanying  re- 
port, was  such  a  repeal  characterized  as  a  departure  from 
the  course  pursued  in  1850?  And  its  continued  omis- 
sion recommended? 

I  am  aware  Judge  Douglas  now  argues  that  the  sub- 
sequent express  repeal  is  no  substantial  alteration  of  the 
bill.  This  argument  seems  wonderful  to  me.  It  is  as 
if  one  should  argue  that  white  and  black  are  not  differ- 
ent. He  admits,  however,  that. there  is  a  literal  change 
in  the  bill,  and  that  he  made  the  change  in  deference 
to  other  Senators,  who  would  not  support  the  bill  with- 
out. This  proves  that  those  other  Senators  thought  the 
change  a  substantial  one,  and  that  the  judge  thought 
their  opinions  worth  deferring  to.  His  own  opinions, 
therefore,  seem  not  to  rest  on  a  very  firm  basis,  even  in 
his  own  mind;  and'I  suppose  the  world  believes,  and 
will  continue  to  believe,  that  precisely  on  the  substance 
of  that  change  this  whole  agitation  has  arisen. 

I  conclude,  then,  that  the  public  never  demanded  the 
repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise. 

I  now  come  to  consider  whether  the  repeal,  with  its 
avowed  principles,  is  intrinsically  right.  I  insist  that 


272        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

it  is  not.  Take  the  particular  case.  A  controversy  had 
arisen  between  the  advocates  and  opponents  of  slavery, 
in  relation  to  its  establishment  within  the  country  we 
had  purchased  of  France.  The  southern,  and  then  best 
part  of  the  purchase,  was  already  in  as  a  slave  state. 
The  controversy  was  settled  by  also  letting  Missouri  in 
as  .a  slave  state;  but  with  the  agreement  that  within  all 
the  remaining  part  of  the  purchase,  north  of  a  certain 
line,  there  should  never  be  slavery.  As  to  what  was  to 
be  done  with  the  remaining  part  south  of  the  line  noth- 
ing was  said  ;  but  perhaps  the  fair  implication  was,  that 
it  should  come  in  with  slavery,  if  it  should  so  choose. 
The  southern  part,  except  a  portion  heretofore  men- 
tioned, afterward  did  come  in  with  slavery,  as  the  State 
of  Arkansas.  All  these  many  years,  since  1820,  the 
northern  part  had  remained  a  wilderness.  At  length, 
settlements  began  in  it  also.  In  due  course,  Iowa  came 
in  as  a  free  state,  and  Minnesota  was  given  a  territorial 
government,  without  removing  the  slavery  restriction. 
Pinally,  the  sole  remaining  part,  north  of  the  line — 
Kansas  and  Nebraska — was  to  be  organized ;  and  it  is 
proposed,  and  carried,  to  blot  out  the  old  dividing  line 
of  thirty-four  years'  standing,  and  to  open  the  whole  of 
that  country  to  the  introduction  of  slavery.  Now  this, 
to  my  mind,  is  manifestly  unjust.  After  an  angry  and 
dangerous  controversy,  the  parties  made  friends  by  di- 
viding the  bone  of  contention.  The  one  party  first 
appropriates  her  own  share,  beyond  all  power  to  be 
disturbed  in  the  possession  of  it,  and  then  seizes  the 
share  of  the  other  party.  It  is  as  if  two  starving  meu 
had  divided  their  only  loaf;  the  one  had  hastily  swal- 
lowed his  half,  and  then  grabbed  the  other's  half  just 
as  he  was  putting  it  to  his  mouth. 

Let  me  here  drop  the  main  argument,  to  notice  what 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        273 

I  consider  rather  an  inferior  matter.  It  is  argued  that 
slavery  will  not  go  to  Kansas  and  Nebraska,  in  any  event. 
This  is  a  palliation — a  lullaby.  I  have  some  hope  that 
it  will  not ;  but  let  us  not  be  too  confident.  As  to  cli- 
mate, a  glance  at  the  map  shows  that  there  are  five  slave 
states — Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia,  Kentucky,  and 
Missouri,  and  also  the  District  of  Columbia,  all  north 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise  line.  The  census  returns 
of  1850,  show  that,  within  these,  there  are  eight  hundred 
and  sixty-seven  thousand  two  hundred  and  seventy-six 
slaves — being  more  than  one-fourth  of  all  the  slaves  in 
the  nation. 

It  is  not  climate,  then,  that  will  keep  slavery  out  of 
these  territories.  Is  there  anything  in  the  peculiar  na- 
ture of  the  country?  Missouri  adjoins  these  territories 
by  her  entire  western  boundary,  and  slavery  is  already 
within  every  one  of  her  western  counties.  I  have  even 
heard  it  said  that  there  are  more  slaves  in  proportion  to 
whites  in  the  northwestern  county  of  Missouri,  than  with- 
in any  other  county  in  the  state.  Slavery  pressed  entirely 
up  to  the  old  western  boundary  of  the  state,  and  when, 
rather  recently,  a  part  of  that  boundary  at  the  north- 
west was  moved  out  a  little  farther  west,  slavery  fol- 
lowed on  quite  up  to  the  new  line.  Now  when  the  re- 
striction is  removed,  what  is  to  prevent  it  from  going 
still  farther  ?  Climate  will  not — no  peculiarity  of  the 
country  will — nothing  in  nature  will.  Will  the  disposi- 
tion of  the  people  prevent  it?  Those  nearest  the  scene 
are  all  in  favor  of  the  extension.  The  Yankees,  who  are 
opposed  to  it,  may  be  most  numerous;  but,  in  military 
phrase,  the  battle-field  is  too  far  from  their  base  of  oper- 
ations. 

But  it  is  said,  there  now  is  no  law  in  Nebraska  on  the 
subject  of  slavery,  and  that,  in  such  case,  taking  a  slave 


274       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

there  operates  his  freedom.  That  is  good  book  law,  but 
is  not  the  rule  of  actual  practice.  Wherever  slavery  is 
it  has  been  first  introduced  without  law.  The  oldest 
laws  we  find  concerning  it,  are  not  laws  introducing  it, 
but  regulating  it  as  an  already  existing  thing.  A  white 
man  takes  his  slave  to  Nebraska  now.  Who  will  inform 
the  negro  that  he  is  free  ?  Who  will  take  him  before 
court  to  test  the  question  of  his  freedom?  In  ignorance 
of  his  legal  emancipation,  he  is  kept  chopping,  splitting, 
and  plowing.  Others  are  brought  and  move  on  in  the 
same  track.  At  last,  if  ever  the  time  for  voting  comes  on 
the  question  of  slavery,  the  institution  already,  in  fact, 
exists  in  the  country,  and  can  not  well  be  removed.  The 
fact  of  its  presence,  and  the  difficulty  of  its  removal,  will 
carry  the  vote  in  its  favor.  Keep  it  out  until  a  vote  is 
taken,  and  a  vote  in  favor  of  it  can  not  be  got  in  any 
population  of  forty  thousand  on  earth,  who  have  been 
dzawn  together  by  the  ordinary  motives  of  emigration 
and  settlement.  To  get  slaves  into  the  territory  simul- 
taneously with  the  whites,  in  the  incipient  stages  of  set- 
tlement, is  the  precise  stake  played  for,  and  won,  in  this 
Nebraska  measure. 

The  question  is  asked  us  :  "  If  slaves  will  go  in,  not- 
withstanding the  general  principle  of  law  liberates  them, 
•why  would  they  not  equally  go  in  against  positive  stat- 
ute law — go  in,  even  if  the  Missouri  restriction  were 
maintained  !  "  I  answer,  because  it  takes  a  much  bolder 
man  to  venture  in  with  his  property  in  the  latter  case  than 
in  the  former;  because  the  positive  Congressional  enact- 
ment is  known  to,  and  respected  by  all,  or  nearly  all ; 
whereas  the  negative  principle  that  no  law  is  free  law,  ia 
not  much  known  except  among  lawyers.  We  have  some 
experience  of  this  practical  difference.  In  spite  of  the 
ordinance  of  '87,  a  few  negroes  were  brought  into  Illi- 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.       275 

nois,  and  held  in  a  state  of  quasi  slavery,  not  enough, 
however,  to  carry  a  vote  of  the  people  in  favor  of  the 
institution,  when  they  came  to  form  a  Constitution.  But, 
in  the  adjoining  Missouri  country,  where  there  was  no 
ordinance  of  '87 — was  no  restriction — they  were  carried 
ten  times,  nay,  a  hundred  times,  as  fast,  and  actually 
made  a  slave  state.  This  is  fact — naked  fact. 

Another  lullaby  argument  is,  that  taking  slaves  to 
new  countries  does  not  increase  their  number — does  not 
make  any  one  slave  who  otherwise  would  be  free.  There 
is  some  truth  in  this,  and  I  am  glad  of  it;  but  it  is  not 
wholly  true.  The  African  slave-trade  is  not  yet  effectu- 
ally suppressed  ;  and  if  we  make  a  reasonable  deduction 
for  the  white  people  among  us  who  are  foreigners,  and 
the  descendants  of  foreigners,  arriving  here  since  1808, 
we  shall  find  the  increase  of  the  black  population  out- 
running that  of  the  white,  to  an  extent  unaccountable, 
except  by  supposing  that  some  of  them,  too,  have  been 
coming  from  Africa.  If  this  be  so,  the  opening  of  new 
countries  to  the  institution  increases  the  demand  for, 
and  augments  the  price  of  slaves,  and  so  does,  in  fact, 
make  slaves  of  freemen,  by  causing  them  to  be  brought 
from  Africa  and  sold  into  bondage. 

But  however  this  may  be,  we  know  the  opening  of 
new  countries  to  slavery  tends  to  the  perpetuation  of 
the  institution,  and  so  does  keep  men  in  slavery  who 
would  otherwise  be  free.  This  result  we  do  not  FEEL 
like  favoring,  and  we  are  under  no  legal  obligation  to 
suppress  our  feelings  in  this  respect. 
.  Equal  justice  to  the  South,  it  is  said,  requires  us  to 
consent  to  the  extension  of  slavery  to  new  countries. 
That  is  to  say,  inasmuch  as  you  do  not  object  to  my  tak- 
king  my  hog  to  Nebraska,  therefore  I  must  not  object 
to  you  taking  your  slave.  Now,  I  admit  that  this  is  per- 


276       LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

fectly  logical,  if  there  is  no  difference  between  hogs  and 
negroes.  But  while  you  thus  require  me  to  deny  the 
humanity  of  the  negro,  I  wish  to  ask  whether  you  of 
the  South,  yourselves,  have  ever  been  willing  to  do  as 
much  ?  It  is  kindly  provided,  that  of  all  those  who 
come  into  the  world,  only  a  small  percentage  are  natural 
tyrants.  That  percentage  is  no  larger  in  the  slave  states 
than  in  the  free.  The  great  majority  South,  as  well  ag 
North,  have  human  sympathies,  of  which  they  can  no 
more  divest  themselves,  than  they  can  of  their  sensibil- 
ity to  physical  pain.  These  sympathies  in  the  bosoms 
of  the  Southern  people  manifest,  in  many  ways,  their 
sense  of  the  wrong  of  slavery,  and  their  consciousness 
that,  after  all,  there  is  humanity  in  the  negro.  If  they 
deny  this,  let  me  address  them  a  few  plain  questions. 
In  1820,  you  joined  the  North,  almost  unanimously,  in 
declaring  the  African  slave-trade  piracy,  and  in  annex- 
ing to  it  the  punishment  of  death.  Why  did  you  do 
this?  If  you  did  not  feel  that  it  was  wrong,  why  did 
you  join  in  providing  that  men  should  be  hung  for  it? 
The  practice  was  no  more  than  bringing  wild  negroes 
from  Africa  to  sell  to  such  as  would  buy  them.  But 
you  never  thought  of  hanging  men  for  catching  and 
selling  wild  horses,  wild  buffaloes,  or  wild  bears. 

Again  :  you  have  among  you  a  sneaking  individual 
of  the  class  of  native  tyrants,  known  as  the  "  SLAVE- 
DEALER."  He  watches  your  necessities,  and  crawls  up 
to  buy  your  slave,  at  a  speculating  price.  If  you  can 
not  help  it,  you  sell  to  him ;  but  if  you  can  help  it,  you 
drive  him  from  your  door.  You  despise  him  utterly. 
You  do  not  recognize  him  as  a  friend,  or  even  as  an 
honest  man.  Your  children  must  not  play  with  his ; 
they  may  rollick  freely  with  the  little  negroes,  but  not 
with  the  "  slave-dealer's  "  children.  If  you  are  obliged 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        277 

to  deal  with  him,  you  try  to  get  through  the  job,  with- 
out so  much  as  touching  him.  It  is  common  with  you  to 
join  hands  with  the  men  you  meet;  but  with  the  slave- 
dealer  you  avoid  the  ceremony — instinctively  shrinking 
from  the  snaky  contact.  If  he  grows  rich  and  retires 
from  business,  you  still  remember  him,  and  still  keep 
up  the  ban  of  non-intercourse  upon  him  and  his  family. 
Now,  why  is  this  ?  You  do  not  so  treat  the  man  who 
deals  in  corn,  cattle,  or  tobacco. 

And  yet  again:  There  are  in  the  United  States  and 
territories,  including  the  District  of  Columbia,  433,643 
free  blacks.  At  $500  per  head,  they  are  worth  over 
two  hundred  millions  of  dollars.  How  comes  this  vast 
amount  of  property  to  be  running  about,  without  owners? 
We  do  not  see  free  horses,  or  free  cattle,  running  at 
large.  How  is  this?  All  these  free  blacks  are  the  de- 
scendants of  slaves,  or  have  been  slaves  themselves ; 
and  they  would  be  slaves  now,  but  for  SOMETHING  which 
has  operated  on  their  white  owners,  inducing  them  at 
vast  pecuniary  sacrifices  to  liberate  them.  What  is  that 
SOMETHING?  Is  there  any  mistaking  it?  In  all  these 
cases,  it  is  your  sense  of  justice  and  human  sympathy, 
continually  telling  you  that  the  poor  negro  has  some 
natural  right  to  himself — that  those  who  deny  it,  and 
make  mere  merchandise  of  him,  deserve  kickings,  con- 
tempt, and  death. 

And  now,  why  will  you  ask  us  to  deny  the  humanity 
of  the  slave,  and  estimate  him  as  only  the  equal  of  the 
hog?  Why  ask  us  to  do  what  you  will  not  do  your- 
selves? Why  ask  us  to  do  for  nothing  what  two  hundred 
millions  of  dollars  could  not  induce  you  to  do? 

But  one  great  argument  in  the  support  of  the  repeal 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise  is  still  to  come.  That 
argument  is  "  the  sacred  right  of  self-government."  It 


278        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

seems  our  distinguished  Senator  has  found  great  diffi- 
culty in  getting  his  antagonists,  even  in  the  Senate,  to 
meet  him  fairly  on  this  argument.  Some  poet  has  said: 

"  Fools  rush  in  where  angels  fear  to  tread." 

At  the  hazard  of  being  thought  one  of  the  fools  of  this 
quotation,  I  meet  that  argument — I  rush  in — I  take  that 
bull  by  the  horns. 

I  trust  I  understand  and  truly  estimate  the  right  of 
self-government.  My  faith  in  the  proposition  that  each 
man  should  do  precisely  as  he  pleases  with  all  which  is 
exclusively  his  own,  lies  at  the  foundation  of  the  sense 
of  justice  there  is  in  me.  I  extend  the  principle  to 
communities  of  men,  as  well  as  to  individuals.  I  so 
extend  it,  because  it  is  politically  wise,  as  well  as  natu- 
rally just;  politically  wise  in  saving  us  from  broils  about 
matters  which  do  not  concern  us.  Here,  or  at  Wash- 
ington, I  would  not  trouble  myself  with  the  oyster  laws 
of  Virginia,  or  the  cranberry  laws  of  Indiana. 

The  doctrine  of  self-government  is  right — absolutely 
and  eternally  right — but  it  has  no  just  application  as 
here  attempted.  Or  perhaps  I  should  rather  say  that 
whether  it  has  such  just  application,  depends  upon 
whether  a  negro  is  not  or  is  a  man.  If  he  is  not  a  man, 
in  that  case  he  who  is  a  man,  may,  as  a  matter  of  self- 
government,  do  just  what  he  pleases  with  him.  But  if 
the  negro  is  a  man,  is  it  not  to  that  extent  a  total  de- 
struction of  self-government  to  say  that  he  too  shall 
not  govern  himself?  When  the  white  man  governs  him- 
self, that  is  self-government;  but  when  he  governs  him- 
self, and  also  governs  another  man,  that  is  more  than 
self-government — that  is  despotism.  If  the  negro  is  a 
man,  why,  then,  my  ancient  faith  teaches  me  that  "  all 
men  are  created  equal ;"  and  that  there  can  be  no  moral 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        279 

right  in  connection  with  one  man's  making  a  slave  of 
another. 

Judge  Douglas  frequently,  with  bitter  irony  and  sar- 
casm, paraphrases  our  argument  by  saying  :  "  The  white 
people  of  Nebraska  are  good  enough  to  govern  them- 
selves, lut  they  are  not  good  enough  to  govern  a  few  miser- 
able negroes  !" 

Well,  I  doubt  not  that  the  people  of  Nebraska  are, 
and  will  continue  to  be  as  good  as  the  average  of  people 
elsewhere.  I  do  not  say  the  contrary.  What  I  do  say 
is,  that  no  man  is  good  enough  to  govern  another  man, 
without  that  other's  consent.  I  say  this  is  the  leading 
principle,  the  sheet-anchor  of  American  Kepublicanism. 
Our  Declaration  of  Independence  says  : 

"We  bold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident:  That  all  men  are 
created  equal ;  that  they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  cer- 
tain inalienable  rights;  that  among  these  are  life,  liberty,  and 
the  pursuit  of  happiness.  That  to  secure  these  rights,  govern- 
ments are  instituted  among  men,  DERIVING  THEIR  JUST  POWERS 

FROM  THE  CONSENT  OF  THE  GOVERNED." 

I  have  quoted  so  much  at  this  time  merely  to  show 
that,  according  to  our  ancient  faith,  the  just  powers  of 
governments  are  derived  from  the  consent  of  the  gov- 
erned. Now,  the  relation  of  master  and  slave  is  pro  tanto 
a  total  violation  of  their  principle.  The  master  not  only 
governs  the  slave  without  his  consent,  but  he  soverns 
him  by  a  set  of  rules  altogether  different  from  those 
which  he  prescribes  for  himself.  Allow  ALL  the  gov- 
erned an  equal  voice  in  the  government;  and  that,  and 
that  only,  is  self-government. 

Let  it  not  be  said  I  am  contending  for  the  establish- 
ment of  political  and  social  equality  between  the  whites 
and  blacks.  I  have  already  said  the  contrary.  I  am 


280       LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

not  now  combating  the  argument  of  NECESSITY,  arising 
from  the  fact  that  the  blacks  are  already  among  us ;  but 
I  am  combating  what  is  set  up  as  MORAL  argument  for 
allowing  them  to  be  taken  where  they  have  never  yet 
been — arguing  against  the  extension  of  a  bad  thing, 
which,  where  it  already  exists,  we  must  of  necessity 
manage  as  we  best  can. 

In  support  of  his  application  of  the  doctrine  of  self- 
government,  Senator  Douglas  has  sought  to  bring  to  his 
aid  the  opinions  and  examples  of  our  Revolutionary 
fathers.  I  am  glad  he  has  done  this.  I  love  the  senti- 
ments of  those  old-time  men,  and  shall  be  most  happy 
to  abide  by  their  opinions.  He  shows  us  that  when  it 
was  in  contemplation  for  the  colonies  to  break  off  from 
Great  Britain,  and  set  up  a  new  government  for  them- 
selves, several  of  the  states  instructed  their  delegates  to 
go  for  the  measure,  PROVIDED  EACH  STATE  SHOULD  BE 

ALLOWED   TO   REGULATE    ITS    DOMESTIC    CONCERN'S   IN   ITS 

OWN  WAY.  I  do  not  quote ;  but  this  in  substance. 
This  was  right.  I  see  nothing  objectionable  in  it.  I 
also  think  it  probable  that  it  had  some  reference  to  tho 
existence  of  slavery  among  them.  I  will  not  deny  that 
it  had.  But  had  it  any  reference  to  the  carrying  of 
slavery  into  NEW  COUNTRIES?  That  is  the  question,  and 
we  will  let  the  fathers  themselves  answer  it. 

This  same  generation  of  men,  and  mostly  the  same 
individuals  of  the  generation  who  declared  this  princi- 
ple, who  declared  independence,  who  fought  the  war  of 
the  Revolution  through,  who  afterward  made  the  Consti- 
tution under  which  we  still  live — -these  same  men  passed 
the  ordinance  of '87,  declaring  that  slavery  should  never 
go  to  the  Northwest  Territory.  I  have  no  doubt  Judge 
Douglas  thinks  they  were  very  inconsistent  in  this.  It 
is  a  question  of  discrimination  between  them  and  him. 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.       281 

But  there  is  not  an  inch  of  ground  left  for  his  claiming 
that  their  opinions,  their  example,  their  authority,  are  on 
his  side  in  this  controversy. 

Again,  is  not  Nebraska,  while  a  territory,  a  part  of 
us?  Do  we  not  own  the  country?  And  if  we  sur- 
render the  control  of  it,  do  we  not  surrender  the  right 
of  self-government?  It  is  part  of  ourselves?  If  you 
say  we  shall  not  control  it,  because  it  is  ONLY  part,  the 
same  is  true  of  every  other  part ;  and  when  all  the  parts 
are  gone,  what  has  become  of  the  whole?  What  is  then 
left  of  us  ?  What  use  for  the  General  Government,  when 
there  is  nothing  left  for  it  to  govern  ? 

But  you  say  this  question  should  be  left  to  the  people 
of  Nebraska,  because  they  are  more  particularly  inter- 
ested. If  this  be  the  rule,  you  must  'leave  it  to  each 
individual  to  say  for  himself  whether  he  will  have 
slaves.  What  better  moral  right  have  thirty-one  citizens 
of  Nebraska  to  say,  that  the  thirty-second  shall  not 
hold  slaves,  than  the  people  of  the  thirty-one  states  liave 
to  say  that  slavery  shall  not  go  into  the  thirty-second 
state  at  all  ? 

But  if  it  is  a  sacred  right  for  the  people  of  Nebraska 
to  take  and  hold  slaves  there,  it  is  equally  their  sacred 
right  to  buy  them  where  they  can  buy  them  cheapest; 
and  that,  undoubtedly,  will  be  on  the  coast  of  Africa, 
provided  you  will  consent  not  to  hang  them  for  going 
there  to  buy  them.  You  must  remove  this  restriction, 
too,  from  the  sacred  right  of  self-government.  I  am 
aware,  you  say,  that  taking  slaves  from  the  States  to 
Nebraska,  does  not  make  slaves  of  freemen  ;  but  the 
African  slave-trader  can  say  just  as  much.  He  does  not 
catch  free  negroes  and  bring  them  here.  He  finds 
them  already  slaves  in  the  hands  of  their  black  captors, 
and  he  honestly  buys  them  at  the  rate  of  about  a  red 
24 


232        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

cotton  handkerchief  a  head.  This  is  very  cheap  and  it 
is  a  great  abridgment  of  the  sacred  right  of  self-govern- 
ment to  hang  men  for  engaging  in  this  profitable  trade. 

Another  important  objection  to  this  application  of  the 
right  of  self-government,  is,  that  it  enables  the  first  FEW 
to  deprive  the  succeeding  MANY  of  a  free  exercise  of  the 
right  of  self-government.  The  first  few  may  get  slavery 
IN,  and  the  subsequent  many  can  not  easily  get  it  OUT. 
How  common  is  the  remark  now  in  the  slave  states  : 
"  If  we  were  only  clear  of  our  slaves,  how  much  better 
it  would  be  for  us."  They  are  actually  deprived  of  the 
privilege  of  governing  themselves  as  they  would,  by  the 
action  of  a  very  few  in  the  beginning.  The  same  thing 
•was  true  of  the  whole  nation  at  the  time  our  Constitu- 
tion was  formed. 

Whether  slavery  shall  go  into  Nebraska,  or  other  new 
territories,  is  not  a  matter  of  exclusive  concern  to  the 
people  who  may  go  there.  The  whole  nation  is  inter- 
ested that  the  best  use  shall  be  made  of  these  territories. 
We  want  them  for  the  homes  of  free  white  people.  This 
they  can  not  be,  to  any  considerable  extent,  if  slavery 
shall  be  planted  within  them.  Slave  states  are  places 
for  poor  white  people  to  remove  FROM  ;  not  to  remove 
TO.  New  free  states  are  the  places  for  poor  people  to  go 
to,  and  better  their  condition.  For  this  use  the  nation 
needs  these  territories. 

Still  further ;  there  are  constitutional  relations  between 
the  slave  and  free  states,  which  are  degrading  to  the 
latter.  We  are  under  legal  obligations  to  catch  and 
return  their  runaway  slaves  to  them,  a  sort  of  dirty,  dis- 
agreeable job  which  I  believe,  as  a  general  rule,  the 
slaveholders  will  not  perform  for  one  another.  Then 
again,  in  the  control  of  the  government — the  manage- 
ment of  the  partnership  affairs — they  have  greatly  the 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        283 

advantage  of  us.  By  the  Constitution  each  state  has 
two  Senators,  each  has  a  number  of  Representatives,  in 
proportion  to  the  number  of  its  people,  and  each  has 
a  number  of  Presidential  electors,  equal  to  the  whole 
number  of  its  Senators  and  Representatives  together. 
But  in  ascertaining  the  number  of  the  people  for  this 
purpose,  five  slaves  are  counted  as  being  equal  to  three 
whites.  The  slaves  do  not  vote  ;  they  are  only  counted 
and  so  used,  as  to  swell  the  influence  of  the  white  peo- 
ple's votes.  The  practical  effect  of  this  is  more  aptly 
shown  by  a  comparison  of  the  states  of  South  Carolina 
and  Maine.  South  Carolina  has  six  Representatives,  and 
so  has  Maine;  South  Carolina  has  eight  Presidential 
electors,  and  so  has  Maine.  This  is  precise  equality  so 
far ;  and  of  course  they  are  equal  in  Senators,  each 
having  two.  Thus  in  the  control  of  the  government, 
the  two  states  are  equals  precisely.  But  how  are  they  in 
the  number  of  their  white  people  ?  Maine  has  581,813, 
while  South  Carolina  has  274,567;  Maine  has  twice  as 
many  as  South  Carolina,  and  32,679  over.  Thus,  each 
•white  man  in  South  Carolina  is  more  than  the  double 
of  any  man  in  Maine.  This  is  all  because  South  Caro- 
lina, besides  her  free  people,  has  384,984  slaves.  The 
South  Carolinian  has  precisely  the  same  advantage  over 
the  white  man  in  every  other  free  state,  as  well  as  in 
Maine.  He  is  more  than  the  double  of  any  one  of  us  in 
this  crowd.  The  same  advantage,  but  not  to  the  same 
extent,  is  held  by  all  the  citizens  of  the  slave  states,  over 
those  of  the  free ;  and  it  is  an  absolute  truth  without  an 
exception,  that  there  is  no  voter  in  any  slave  state,  but 
who  has  more  legal  power  in  the  government  than  any 
voter  in  any  free  state.  There  is  no  instance  of  exact 
equality ;  and  the  disadvantage  is  against  us  the  whole 
chapter  through.  This  principle  in  the  aggregate,  gives 


284       LIFE    AND  SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

the  slave  states  in  the  present  Congress,  twenty  addi- 
tional representatives,  being  seven  more  than  the  whole 
majority  by  which  they  passed  the  Nebraska  bill. 

Now  all  this  is  manifestly  unfair;  yet  I  do  not  men- 
tion it  to  complain  of  it,  in  so  far  as  it  is  already  settled. 
It  is  in  the  Constitution,  and  I  do  not  for  that  cause, 
or  any  other  cause,  propose  to  destroy,  or  alter,  or  disre- 
gard the  Constitution.  I  stand  to  it,  fairly,  fully,  and 
firmly. 

But  when  I  am  told  I  must  leave  it  altogether  to 
OTHER  PEOPLE  to  say  whether  new  partners  are  to  be 
bred  up  and  brought  into  the  firm,  on  the  same  degrad- 
ing terms  against  me,  I  respectfully  demur.  I  insist 
that  whether  I  shall  be  a  whole  man,  or  only  the  half  of 
one,  in  comparison  with  others,  is  a  question  in  which  I 
am  somewhat  concerned;  and  one  which  no  other  man 
can  have  a  sacred  right  of  deciding  for  me.  If  I  am 
wrong  in  this — if  it  really  be  a  sacred  right  of  self-gov- 
ernment, in  the  man  who  shall  go  to  Nebraska,  to  decide 
whether  he  will  be  the  EQUAL  of  me  or  the  DOUBLE  of 
me,  then,  after  he  shall  have  exercised  that  right,  and 
thereby  shall  have  reduced  me  to  a  still  smaller  fraction 
of  a  man  than  I  already  am,  I  should  like  for  some  gen- 
tleman, deeply  skilled  in  the  mysteries  of  sacred  rights, 
to  provide  himself  with  a  microscope,  and  peep  about, 
and  find  out,  if  he  can,  what  has  become  of  my  sacred 
rights!  They  will  surely  be  too  small  for  detection  with 
the  naked  eye. 

Finally,  I  insist  that  if  there  is  ANYTHING  which  it  is 
the  duty  of  the  WHOLE  PEOPLE  to  never  intrust  to  any 
hands  but  their  own,  that  thing  is  the  preservation  and 
perpetuity  of  their  own  liberties  and  institutions.  And 
if  they  shall  think,  as  I  do,  that  the  extension  of  slavery 
endangers  them,  more  than  any  or  all  other  causes,  how 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        285 

recreant  to  themselves  if  they  submit  the  question,  and 
with  it  the  fate  of  their  country,  to  a  mere  handful  of 
men,  bent  only  on  temporary  self-interest.  If  this  ques- 
tion of  slavery  extension  were  an  insignificant  one — one 
having  no  power  to  do  harm — it  might  be  shuffled  aside 
in  this  way ;  but  being,  as  it  is,  the  great  Behemoth  of 
danger,  shall  the  strong  gripe  of  the  nation  be  loosened 
upon  him,  to  intrust  him  to  the  hands  of  such  feeble 
keepers  ? 

I  have  done  with  this  mighty  argument  of  self-govern- 
ment. Go,  sacred  thing  !  Go,  in  peace. 

But  Nebraska  is  urged  as  a  great  Union-saving  meas- 
ure. Well,  I,  too,  go  for  saving  the  Union.  Much  as  I 
hate  slavery,  I  would  consent  to  the  extension  of  it  rather 
than  see  the  Union  dissolved,  just  as  I  would  consent  to 
any  GREAT  evil  to  avoid  a  GREATER  one.  But  when  I  go 
to  Union-saving,  I  must  believe,  at  least,  that  the  means 
I  employ  have  some  adaptation  to  the  end.  To  my  mind, 
Nebraska  has  no  such  adaptation. 

"  It  hath  no  relish  of  salvation  in  it." 

It  is  an  aggravation,  rather,  of  the  only  one  thing 
which  ever  endangers  the  Union.  When  it  came  upon 
us,  all  was  peace  and  quiet.  The  nation  was  looking  to 
the  forming  of  new  bonds  of  union,  and  a  long  course 
of  peace  and  prosperity  seemed  to  lie  before  us.  In  the 
whole  range  of  possibility,  there  scarcely  appears  to  me 
to  have  been  anything  out  of  which  the  slavery  agitation 
could  have  been  revived,  except  the  very  project  of  re- 
pealing the  Missouri  Compromise.  Every  inch  of  terri- 
tory we  owned,  already  had  a  definite  settlement  of  the 
slavery  question,  by  which  all  parties  were  pledged  to 
abide.  Indeed,  there  was  no  uninhabited  country  on  the 
continent  which  we  could  acquire  ;  if  we  except  some 


286        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

extreme  northern  regions  which  are  wholly  out  of  the 
question. 

la  this  state  of  affairs,  the  Genius  of  Discord  himself 
could  scarcely  have  invented  a  way  of  again  getting  us 
by  the  ears,  but  by  turning  back,  and  destroying  the 
peace  measures  of  the  past.  The  councils  of  that  Genius 
seem  to  have  prevailed  ;  the  Missouri  Compromise  was 
repealed;  and  here  we  are,  in  the  midst  of  a  new  slavery 
agitation,  such,  I  think,  as  we  have  never  seen  before 
Who  is  responsible  for  this  ?  Is  it  those  who  resist  th& 
measure ;  or  those  who,  causelessly,  brought  it  forward, 
and  pressed  it  through,  having  reason  to  know,  and,  in 
fact,  knowing  it  must  and  would  be  so  resisted?  It  could 
not  but  be  expected  by  its  author,  that  it  would  be  looked 
upon  as  a  measure  for  the  extension  of  slavery,  aggrava- 
ted by  a  gross  breach  of  faith. 

Argue  as  you  will,  and  long  as  you  will,  this  is  the 
naked  FRONT  and  ASPECT  of  the  measure.  And  in  this 
aspect,  it  could  not  but  produce  agitation.  Slavery  ij 
founded  in  the  selfishness  of  man's  nature — opposition 
to  it,  in  his  love  of  justice.  These  principles  are  an 
eternal  antagonism;  and  when  brought  into  collision  so 
fiercely  as  slavery  extension  brings  them,  shocks,  and 
throes,  and  convulsions  must  ceaselessly  follow.  Re- 
peal the  Missouri  Compromise — repeal  all  compromise — 
repeal  the  Declaration  of  Independence — repeal  all  past 
history — you  still  can  not  repeal  human  nature.  It  still 
will  be  the  abundance  of  man's  heart  that  slavery  exten- 
sion is  wrong ;  and  out  of  the  abundance  of  his  heart 
his  mouth  will  continue  to  speak. 

The  structure,  too,  of  the  Nebraska  bill  is  very  pecu- 
liar. The  people  are  to  decide  the  question  of  slavery 
for  themselves ;  but  WHEN  they  are  to  decide,  or  HOW 
they  are  to  decide,  or  whether  when  the  question  is  once 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.       287 

decided,  it  is  to  remain  so,  or  is  to  be  subject  to  an  indef- 
inite succession  of  new  trials,  the  law  does  not  say.  Is 
it  to  be  decided  by  the  first  dozen  settlers  who  arrive 
there  ?  or  is  it  to  await  the  arrival  of  a  hundred  ?  Is 
it  to  be  decided  by  a  vote  of  the  people  ?  or  a  vote  of 
the  Legislature  ?  or,  indeed,  by  a  vote  of  any  sort  ?  To 
these  questions,  the  law  gives  no  answer.  There  is  a 
mystery  about  this;  for  when  a  member  proposed  to  give 
the  Legislature  express  authority  to  exclude  slavery,  it 
was  hooted  down  by  the  friends  of  the  bill.  This  fact  is 
worth  remembering.  Some  Yankees,  in  the  East,  are 
sending  emigrants  to  Nebraska,  to  exclude  slavery  from 
it ;  and,  so  far  as  I  can  judge,  they  expect  the  question 
to  be  decided  by  voting  in  some  way  or  other.  But  the 
Missourians  are  awake  too.  They  are  within  a  stone's 
throw  of  the  contested  ground.  They  hold  meetings, 
and  pass  resolutions,  in  "which  not  the  slightest  allusion 
to  voting  is  made.  They  resolve  that  slavery  already 
exists  in  the  territory  ;  that  more  shall  go  there  ;  that 
they,  remaining  in  Missouri,  will  protect  it ;  and  that 
Abolitionists  shall  be  hung  or  driven  away.  Through 
all  this,  bowie-knives  and  six-shooters  are  seen  plainly 
enough;  but  never  a  glimpse  of  the  ballot-box. 

And,  really,  what  is  to  be  the  result  of  this  ?  Each 
party  WITHIN,  having  numerous  and  determined  backers 
•WITHOUT,  is  it  not  probable  that  the  contest  will  come  to 
blows  and  bloodshed?  Could  there  be  a  more  apt  inven- 
tion to  bring  about  collision  and  violence,  on  the  slavery 
question,  than  this  Nebraska  project  is?  I  do  not  charge 
or  believe  that  such  was  intended  by  Cong/ess ;  but  if 
they  had  literally  formed  a  ring,  and  placed  champions 
•within  it  to  fight  out  the  controversy,  the  fight  could  be 
no  more  likely  to  come  off  than  it  is.  And  if  this  fight 
should  begin,  is  it  likely  to  take  a  very  peaceful  Uiiioji- 


288        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

saving  turn  ?  "Will  not  the  first  drop  of  blood,  so  shed, 
be  the  real  knell  of  the  Union  ? 

The  Missouri  Compromise  ought  to  be  restored.  For 
the  sake  of  the  Union,  it  ought  to  be  restored.  We  ought 
to  elect  a  House  of  Representatives  which  will  vote  its 
restoration.  If,  by  any  means,  we  omit  to  do  this,  what 
follows  ?  Slavery  may  or  may  not  be  established  in  Ne- 
braska. But  whether  it  be  or  not,  we  shall  have  repu- 
diated— discarded  from  the  councils  of  the  nation — the 
SPIRIT  of  COMPROMISE  ;  for  who,  after  this,  will  ever  trust 
in  a  national  compromise?  The  spirit  of  mutual  conces- 
sion— that  spirit  which  first  gave  us  the  Constitution,  and 
which  has  thrice  saved  the  Union — we  shall  have  stran- 
gled and  cast  from  us  forever.  And  what  shall  we  have  in 
lieu  of  it?  The  South,  flushed  with  triumph  and  tempted 
to  excesses;  the  North,  betrayed  as  they  believe,  brooding 
on  wrong  and  burning  for  revenge.  One  side  will  pro- 
voke, the  other  resent.  The  one  will  taunt,  the  other 
defy  ;  one  aggresses,  the  other  retaliates.  Already  a  few 
in  the  North  defy  all  Constitutional  restraints,  resist  the 
execution  of  the  fugitive  slave  law,  and  even  menace  the 
institution  of  slavery  in  the  states  where  it  exists.  Al- 
ready a  few  in  the  South  claim  the  Constitutional  right 
to  take  to  and  hold  slaves  in  the  free  states — demand 
the  revival  of  the  slave-trade — and  demand  a  treaty  with 
Great  Britain,  by  which  fugitive  slaves  may  be  reclaimed 
from  Canada.  As  yet  they  are  but  few  on  either  side. 
It  is  a  grave  question  for  the  lovers  of  the  Union, 
whether  the  final  destruction  of  the  Missouri  Compro- 
mise, and  with  it  the  spirit  of  all  compromise,  will  or 
will  not  embolden  and  embitter  each  of  these,  and  fatally 
increases  the  number  of  both. 

But  restore  the  compromise,  and  what  then  ?  We 
-thereby  restore  the  national  faith,  the  national  confi- 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.       289 

dence,  the  national  feeling  of  brotherhood.  We  thereby 
reinstate  the  spirit  of  concession  and  compromise — that 
spirit  which  has  never  failed  us  in  past  perils,  and  which 
may  be  safely  trusted  for  all  the  future.  The  South 
ought  to  join  in  doing  this.  The  peace  of  the  nation  is 
as  dear  to  them  as  to  us.  In  memories  of  the  past  and 
hopes  of  the  future,  they  share  as  largely  as  we.  It 
would  be,  on  their  part,  a  great  act — great  in. its  spirit, 
and  great  in  its  effect.  It  would  be  worth  to  the  nation 
a  hundred  years'  purchase  of  peace  and  prosperity.  And 
what  of  sacrifice  would  they  make  ?  They  only  surrender 
to  us  what  they  gave  us  for  a  consideration  long,  long 
ago ;  what  they  have  not  now  asked  for,  struggled,  or 
cared  for ;  what  has  been  thrust  upon  them,  not  less  to 
their  own  astonishment  than  to  ours. 

But  it  is  said  we  can  not  restore  it;  that  though  we 
elect  every  member  of  the  lower  House,  the  Senate  is 
still  against  us.  It  is  quite  true  that,  of  the  Senators 
who  passed  the  Nebraska  bill,  a  majority  of  the  whole 
Senate  will  retain  their  seats  in  spite  of  the  elections  of 
this  and  the  next  year.  But  if,  at  these  elections,  their 
several  constituencies  shall  clearly  express  their  will 
against  Nebraska,  will  these  Senators  disregard  their 
will  ?  Will  they  neither  obey,  nor  make  room  for  those 
who  will  ? 

But  even  if  we  fail  to  technically  restore  the  compro- 
mise, it  is  still  a  great  point  to  carry  a  popular  vote  in 
favor  of  the  restoration.  The  moral  weight  of  such  a 
vote  can  not  be  estimated  too  highly.  The  authors  of 
Nebraska  are  not  at  all  satisfied  with  the  destruction  of 
the  compromise — an  indorsement  of  this  PRINCIPLE  they 
proclaim  to  be  the  great  object.  With  them,  Nebraska 
alone  is  a  small  matter — to  establish  a  principle  for  FU- 
TURE USE  is  what  they  particularly  desire. 
25 


290        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

That  future  use  is  to  be  the  planting  of  slavery  wherever 
in  the  wide  world  local  and  unorganized  opposition  can 
not  prevent  it.  Now,  if  you  wish  to  give  them  this  in- 
dorsement, if  you  wish  to  establish  this  principle,  do  so. 
I  shall  regret  it,  but  it  is  your  right.  On  the  contrary, 
if  you  are  opposed  to  the  principle — intend  to  give  it  no 
such  indorsement — let  no  wheedling,  no  sophistry,  divert 
you  from  throwing  a  direct  vote  against  it. 

Some  men,  mostly  Whigs,  who  condemn  the  repeal  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise,  nevertheless  hesitate  to  go  for 
its  restoration,  lest  they  be  thrown  in  company  with  the 
Abolitionist.  Will  they  allow  me,  as  an  old  Whig,  to 
tell  them,  good-humoredly,  that  I  think  this  is  very  silly? 
Stand  with  anybody  that  stands  RIGHT.  Stand  with  him 
while  he  is  right,  and  PART  with  him  when  he  goes 
wrong.  Stand  WITH  the  Abolitionist  in  restoring  the 
Missouri  Compromise,  and  stand  AGAINST  him  when  he 
attempts  to  repeal  the  fugitive  slave  law.  In  the  latter 
case  you  stand  with  the  Southern  disunionist.  What  of 
that  ?  you  are  still  right.  In  both  cases  you  are  right. 
In  both  cases  you  oppose  the  dangerous  extremes.  In 
both  you  stand  on  middle  ground,  and  hold  the  ship 
level  and  steady.  In  both  you  are  national,  and  nothing 
less  than  national.  This  is  the  good  old  Whig  ground. 
To  desert  such  ground  because  of  any  company,  is  to  be 
less  than  a  Whig — less  than  a  man — less  than  an  Amer- 
ican. 

I  particularly  object  to  the  NEW  position  which  the 
avowed  principle  of  this  Nebraska  law  gives  to  slavery 
in  the  body  politic.  I  object  to  it  because  it  assumes  that 
there  CAN  be  MORAL  RIGHT,  in  the  enslaving  of  one  man 
by  another.  I  object  to  it  as  a  dangerous  dalliance  for 
a  free  people — a  sad  evidence  that,  feeling  prosperity, 
we  forget  right — that  liberty,  as  a  principle,  we  have 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.        291 

ceased  to  revere.  I  object  to  it,  because  the  fathers  of 
the  republic  eschewed  and  rejected  it.  The  argument 
of  "  necessity,"  was  the  only  argument  they  ever  ad- 
mitted in  favor  of  slavery ;  and  so  far,  and  so  far  only, 
as  it  carried  them  did  they  ever  go.  They  found  the  in- 
stitution existing  among  us,  which  they  could  not  help, 
and  they  cast  blame  upon  the  British  king  for  having 
permitted  its  introduction.  BEFORE  the  Constitution 
they  prohibited  its  introduction  into  the  Northwestern 
Territory,  the  only  country  we  owned  then  free  from  it. 
AT  the  framing  and  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  they 
forebore  to  so  much  as  mention  the  word  "slave,"  or 
"  slavery,"  in  the  whole  instrument.  In  the  provision 
for  the  recovery  of  fugitives,  the  slave  is  spoken  of  as  a 
11  PERSON  HELD  TO  SERVICE  OR  LABOR."  In  that  prohib- 
iting the  abolition  of  the  African  slave-trade  for  twenty 
years,  that  trade  is  spoken  of  as  "  The  migration  or  im- 
portation of  such  persons  as  any  of  the  states  NOW  EXIST- 
ING shall  think  proper  to  admit,"  etc.  These  are  the 
only  provisions  alluding  to  slavery.  Thus  the  thing  is 
hid  away  in  the  Constitution,  just  as  an  afflicted  man 
hides  away  a  wen  or  cancer,  which  he  dares  not  cut  out 
at  once,  lest  he  bleed  to  death;  with  the  promise,  never- 
theless, that  the  cutting  may  begin  at  the  end  of  a  cer- 
tain time.  Less  than  this  our  fathers  COULD  not  do; 
and  MORE  they  WOULD  not  do.  Necessity  drove  them  so 
far,  and  further  they  would  not  go.  But  this  is  not  all. 
The  earliest  Congress  under  the  Constitution  took  the 
same  view  of  slavery.  They  hedged  and  hemmed  it  in 
to  the  narrowest  limits  of  necessity. 

In  1794,  they  prohibited  an  out-going  slave-trade — 
that  is,  the  taking  of  slaves  FROM  the  United  States  to 
sell. 

In  1798,  they  prohibited  the  bringing  of  slaves  from 


292       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

Africa  INTO  the  Mississippi  Territory — this  territory  then 
comprising  what  are  now  the  states  of  Mississippi  and 
Alabama.  This  was  TEN  YEARS  before  they  had  the 
authority  to  do  the  same  thing  as  to  the  states  existing 
at  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution. 

In  1800,  they  prohibited  AMERICAN  CITIZENS  from 
trading  in  slaves  between  foreign  countries,  as,  for  in- 
stance, from  Africa  to  Brazil. 

In  1803,  they  passed  a  law  in  aid  of  one  or  two  slave 
state  laws,  in  restraint  of  the  internal  slave-trade. 

In  1807,  in  apparent  hot  haste,  they  passed  the  law 
nearly  a  year  in  advance,  to  take  effect  the  first  day  of 
1808 — the  very  first  day  the  Constitution  would  per- 
mit— prohibiting  the  African  slave-trade  by  heavy  pecu- 
niary and  corporal  penalties. 

In  1820,  finding  these  provisions  ineffectual,  they 
declared  the  slave-trade  piracy,  and  annexed  to  it  the 
extreme  penalty  of  death.  While  all  this  was  passing 
in  the  General  Government,  five  or  six  of  the  original 
slave  states  had  adopted  systems  of  gradual  emancipa- 
tion ;  by  which  the  institution  was  rapidly  becoming 
extinct  within  these  limits. 

.  Thus  we  see  the  plain,  unmistakable  spirit  of  that  age, 
toward  slavery,  was  hostility  to  the  PRINCIPLE,  and  toler- 
ation ONLY  BY  NECESSITY. 

But  now  it  is  to  be  transformed  into  a  "  sacred  right." 
Nebraska  brings  it  forth,  places  it  on  the  high  road  to 
extension  and  perpetuity;  and  with  a  pat  on  its  back, 
says  to  it,  "  Go,  and  God  speed  you."  Henceforth  it  is 
to  be  the  chief  jewel  of  the  nation — the  very  figure-head 
of  the  ship  of  state.  Little  by  little,  but  steadily  as 
man's  march  to  the  grave,  we  have  been  giving  up  the 
OLD  for  the  NEW  faith.  Near  eighty  years  ago  we  began 
by  declaring  that  all  men  are  created  equal ;  but  now 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        293 

from  that  beginning  we  have  run  down  to  the  other 
declaration,  that  for  SOME  men  to  enslave  OTHERS  is  a 
"sacred  right  of  self-government."  These  principles 
can  not  stand  together.  They  are  as  opposite  as  God 
and  Mammon  ;  and  whoever  holds  to  the  one  must  de- 
spise the  other.  When  Pettit,  in  connection  with  his 
support  of  the  Nebraska  bill,  called  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  "a  self-evident  lie,"  he  only  did  what  con- 
sistency and  candor  require  all  other  Nebraska  men  to 
do.  Of  the  forty  odd  Nebraska  Senators  who  sat  present 
and  heard  him,  no  one  rebuked  him.  Nor  am  I  apprised 
that  any  Nebraska  newspaper,  or  any  Nebraska  orator, 
in  the  whole  nation,  has  ever  yet  rebuked  him.  If  this 
had  been  said  among  Marion's  men,  Southerners  though 
they  were,  what  would  have  become  of  the  man  who  said 
it?  If  this  had  been  said  to  the  men  who  captured 
Andre,  the  man  who  said  it  would  probably  have  been 
hung  sooner  than  Andre  was.  If  it  had  been  said  in 
old  Independence  Hall,  seventy-eight  years  ago,  the  very 
door-keeper  would  have  throttled  the  man,  and  thrust 
him  into  the  street. 

Let  no  one  be  deceived.  The  spirit  of  seventy-six 
and  the  spirit  of  Nebraska  are  utter  antagonisms;  and 
the  former  is  being  rapidly  displaced  by  the  latter. 

Fellow-countrymen  :  Americans,  South  as  well  as  North, 
shall  we  make  no  effort  to  arrest  this?  Already  the  liber- 
al party  throughout  the  world  express  the  apprehension 
"  that  the  one  retrograde  institution  in  America  is  under- 
mining the  principles  of  progress,  and  fatally  violating 
the  noblest  political  system  the  world  ever  saw."  This 
is  not  the  taunt  of  enemies,  but  the  warning  of  friends. 
Is  it  quite  safe  to  disregard  it — to  despise  it?  Is  there 
no  danger  to  liberty  itself,  in  discarding  the  earliest 
practice,  and  first  precept  of  our  ancient  faith  ?  la  our 


294        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

greedy  chase  to  make  profit  of  the  negro,  let  us  beware 
lest  we  "cancel  and  tear  to  pieces"  even  the  white  man's 
charter  of  freedom. 

Our  republican  robe  is  soiled,  and  trailed  in  the  dust. 
Let  us  re-purify  it.  Let  us  turn  and  wash  it  white,  in 
the  spirit,  if  not  the  blood,  of  the  Revolution.  Let  us 
turn  slavery  from  its  claims  of  "moral  right"  back  upon 
its  existing  legal  rights,  and  its  arguments  of  "  neces- 
sity/' Let  us  return  it  to  the  position  our  fathers  gave 
it,  and  there  let  it  rest  in  peace.  Let  us  readopt  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  and  with  it  the  practices 
and  policy  which  harmonize  with  it.  Let  North  and 
South — let  all  Americans — let  all  lovers  of  liberty  every- 
where— join  in  the  great  and  good  work.  If  we  do  this, 
we  shall  not  only  have  saved  the  Union,  but  we  shall 
have  so  saved  it  as  to  make,  and  to  keep  it,  forever 
worthy  of  the  saving.  We  shall  have  so  saved  it,  that 
the  succeeding  millions  of  free  happy  people,  the  world 
over,  shall  rise  up  and  call  us  blessed,  to  the  latest 
generations. 

At  Springfield,  twelve  days  ago,  where  I  had  spoken 
substantially  as  I  have  here,  Judge  Douglas  replied  to 
me — and  as  he  is  to  reply  to  me  here,  I  shall  attempt  to 
anticipate  him,  by  noticing  some  of  the  points  he  made 
there.  He  commenced  by  stating  I  had  assumed  all  the 
way  through  that  the  principle  of  the  Nebraska  bill  would 
have  the  effect  of  extending  slavery.  He  denied  that 
this  was  INTENDED  or  that  this  EFFECT  would  follow. 

I  will  not  reopen  the  argument  upon  this  point.  That 
such  WAS  the  intention,  the  world  believed  at  the  start, 
and  will  continue  to  believe.  This  was  the  COUNTE- 
NANCE of  the  thing ;  and  both  friends  and  enemies  in- 
stantly recognized  it  as  such.  That  countenance  can 
not  now  be  changed  by  argument.  You  can  as  easily 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.         295 

argue  the  color  out  of  the  negro's  skin.  Like  the  "  bloody 
hand,"  you  may  wash  it,  and  wash  it,  the  red  witness  of 
guilt  still  sticks,  and  stares  horribly  at  you. 

Next  he  says,  Congressional  intervention  never  pre- 
vented slavery  anywhere — that  it  did  not  prevent  it  in 
the  Northwestern  Territory,  nor  in  Illinois—that,  in  fact, 
Illinois  came  into  the  Union  as  a  slave  state — that  the 
principle  of  the  Nebraska  bill  expelled  it  from  Illinois, 
from  several  old  states,  from  everywhere. 

Now  this  is  mere  quibbling  all  the  way  through.  If 
the  ordinance  of  '87  did  not  keep  slavery  out  of  the 
Northwest  Territory,  how  happens  it  that  the  northwest 
shore  of  the  Ohio  River  is  entirely  free  from  it,  while 
the  southeast  shore,  less  than  a  mile  distant,  along  nearly 
the  whole  length  of  the  river,  is  entirely  covered  with  it? 

If  that  ordinance  did  not  keep  it  out  of  Illinois,  what 
was  it  that  made  the  difference  between  Illinois  and  Mis- 
souri ?  They  lie  side  by  side,  the  Mississippi  river  only 
dividing  them;  while  their  early  settlements  were  within 
the  same  latitude.  Between  1810  and  1820,  the  number 
of  slaves  in  Missouri  INCREASED  7,211;  while  in  Illinois, 
in  the  same  ten  years,  they  DECREASED  51.  This  appears 
by  the  census  retui'ns.  During  nearly  all  of  that  ten 
years,  both  were  territories — not  states. 

During  this  time,  the  ordinance  forbade  slavery  to  go 
into  Illinois  ;  and  NOTHING  forbade  it  to  go  into  Mis- 
souri. It  DID  go  into  Missouri,  and  did  NOT  go  into  Illi- 
nois. That  is  the  fact.  Can  any  one  doubt  as  to  the 
reason  of  it? 

But,  he  says,  Illinois  came  into  the  Union  as  a  slave 
state.  Silence,  perhaps,  would  be  the  best  answer  to  this 
flat  contradiction  of  the  known  history  of  the  country. 
What  are  the  facts  upon  which  this  bold  assertion  is 
based  ? 


296       LIFE   AND    SPEECHES   OP    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

When  we  first  acquired  the  country,  as  far  back  as 
1787,  there  were  some  slaves  within  it,  held  by  the 
French  inhabitants  of  Kaskaskia.  The  territorial  legis- 
lation admitted  a  few  negroes  from  the  slave  states,  as 
indentured  servants.  One  year  after  the  adoption  of 
the  first  State  Constitution,  the  whole  number  of  them 
was — what  do  you  think  ?  Just  117 — while  the  aggre- 
gate free  population  was  55,094 — about  470  to  1.  Upon 
this  state  of  facts,  the  people  framed  their  Constitution, 
prohibiting  the  further  introduction  of  slavery,  with  a 
sort  of  guarantee  to  the  owners  of  the  few  indentured 
servants,  giving  freedom  to  their  children  to  be  born 
thereafter,  and  making  no  mention  whatever  of  any  sup- 
posed slave  for  life.  Out  of  this  small  matter,  the  judge 
manufactures  his  argument  that  Illinois  came  into  the 
Union  as  a  slave  state.  Let  the  facts  be  the  answer  to 
the  argument. 

The  principles  of  the  Nebraska  bill,  he  says,  expelled 
slavery  from  Illinois.  The  principle  of  that  bill  first 
planted  it  here — that  is,  it  first  came  because  there  was 
no  law  to  prevent  it — first  came  before  we  owned  the 
country;  and  finding  it  here,  and  having  the  ordinance 
of  '87  to  prevent  its  increasing,  our  people  struggled 
along,  and  finally  got  rid  of  it  as  best  they  could. 

But  the  principle  of  the  Nebraska  bill  abolished  slav- 
ery in  several  of  the  old  states.  Well,  it  is  true  that 
several  of  the  old  states,  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  last 
century,  did  adopt  systems  of  gradual  emancipation,  by 
which  the  institution  has  finally  become  extinct  within 
their  limits ;  but  it  MAY  or  MAY  NOT  be  true  that  the 
principle  of  the  Nebraska  bill  was  the  cause  that  led  to 
the  adoption  of  these  measures.  It  is  now  more  than 
fifty  years  since  the  last  of  these  states  adopted  its  sys- 
tem of  emancipation. 


LIFE   AND  SPEECHES   OP   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.      297 

If  the  Nebraska  bill  is  the  real  author  of  the  benevo- 
lent works,  it  is  rather  deplorable  that  it  has  for  so  long 
a  time  ceased  working  altogether.  Is  there  not  some 
reason  to  suspect  that  it  was  the  principle  of  the  REVO- 
LUTION, and  not  the  principle  of  the  Nebraska  bill,  that 
led  to  emancipation  in  these  old  states?  Leave  it  to  the 
people  of  those  old  emancipating  states,  and  I  am  quite 
certain  they  will  decide  that  neither  that  nor  any  other 
good  thing  ever  did  or  ever  will  come  of  the  Nebraska 

bill. 

In  the  course  of  my  main  argument,  Judge  Douglas 
interrupted  me  to  say  that  the  principle  of  the  Nebraska 
bill  was  very  old  ;  that  it  originated  when  God  made 
man,  and  placed  good  and  evil  before  him,  allowing  him 
to  choose  for  himself,  being  responsible  for  the  choice  he 
should  make.  At  the  time,  I  thought  this  was  merely 
playful  ;  and  I  answered  it  accordingly.  But  in  his  re- 
ply to  me,  he  renewed  it  as  a  serious  argument.  In 
seriousness,  then,  the  facts  of  this  proposition  are  not 
true  as  stated.  God  did  not  place  good  and  evil  before 
man,  telling  him  to  make  his  choice.  On  the  contrary, 
he  did  tell  him  there  was  one  tree,  of  the  fruit  of  which 
he  should  not  eat,  upon  pain  of  certain  death.  I  should 
scarcely  wish  so  strong  a  prohibition  against  slavery  in. 
Nebraska. 

But  this  argument  strikes  me  as  not  a  little  remarka- 
ble in  another  particular — in  its  strong  resemblance  to 
the  old  argument  for  the  "  Divine  right  of  kings."  By 
the  latter,  the  king  is  to  do  just  as  he  pleases  with  his 
white  subjects,  being  responsible  to  God  alone.  By  the 
former,  the  white  man  is  to  do  just  as  he  pleases  with 
his  black  slaves,  being  responsible  to  God  alone.  The 
two  things  are  precisely  alike  ;  and  it  is  but  natural  that 
they  should  find  similar  arguments  to  sustain  them. 


298       LIFE  AND   SPEECHES   OP   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

I  had  argued  that  the  application  of  the  principle  of 
self-government,  as  contended  for,  would  require  the  re- 
vival of  the  African  slave-trade — that  no  argument  could 
be  made  in  favor  of  a  man's  right  to  take  slaves  to 
Nebraska,  which  could  not  be  equally  well  made  in  favor 
of  his  right  to  bring  them  from  the  coast  of  Africa.  The 
judge  replied  that  the  Constitution  requires  the  suppres- 
sion of  the  foreign  slave-trade  ;  but  does  not  require  the 
prohibition  of  slavery  in  the  territories.  That  is  a  mis- 
take, in  point  of  fact.  The  Constitution  does  NOT  require 
the  action  of  Congress  in  either  case  ;  and  it  does  AU- 
THORIZE it  in  both.  And  so,  there  is  still  no  difference 
between  the  cases. 

In  regard  to  what  I  had  said  of  the  advantage  the 
slave  states  have  over  the  free,  in  the  matter  of  represent- 
ation, the  judge  replied  that  we,  in  the  free  states,  count 
five  free  negroes  as  five  white  people,  while  in  the  slave 
states  they  count  five  slaves  as  three  whites  only  ;  and 
that  the  advantage,  at  last,  was  on  the  side  of  the  free 
states. 

Now,  in  the  slave  states,  they  count  free  negroes  just 
as  we  do  ;  and  it  so  happens  that,  besides  their  slaves, 
they  have  as  many  free  negroes  as  we  have,  and  thirty- 
three  thousand  over.  Thus,  their  free  negroes  more 
than  balance  ours ;  and  their  advantage  over  us,  in  con- 
sequence of  their  slaves,  still  remains  as  I  stated  it. 

In  reply  to  my  argument,  that  the  Compromise  Meas- 
ures of  1850  were  a  system  of  equivalents,  and  that  the 
provisions  of  no  one  of  them  could  fairly  be  carried  to 
other  subjects,  without  its  corresponding  equivalent  be- 
ing carried  with  it,  the  judge  denied  outright  that  these 
measures  had  any  connection  with,  or  dependence  upon 
each  other.  This  is  mere  desperation.  If  they  had  no 
connection,  why  are  they  always  spoken  of  in  connec- 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.       299 

tion?  Why  has  he  so  spoken  of  them  a  thousand  times? 
Why  has  he  constantly  called  them  a  SERIES  of  measures? 
Why  does  everybody  call  them  a  compromise  ?  Why 
was  California  kept  out  of  the  Union,  six  or  seven  months, 
if  it  was  not  because  of  its  connection  with  the  other 
measures?  Webster's  leading  definition  of  the  verb,  "to 
compromise,"  is,  "to  adjust  and  settle  a  difference,  by 
mutual  agreement,  with  concessions  of  claims  by  the 
parties."  This  conveys  precisely  the  popular  under- 
standing of  the  word  "compromise." 

We  knew,  before  the  judge  told  us,  that  these  meas- 
ures passed  separately,  and  in  distinct  bills;  and  that  no 
two  of  them  were  passed  by  the  votes  of  precisely  the 
same  members.  But  we  also  know,  and  so  does  he  know, 
that  no  one  of  them  could  have  passed  both  branches  of 
Congress,  but  for  the  understanding  that  the  others  were 
to  pass  also.  Upon  this  understanding,  each  got  votes, 
which  it  could  have  got  in  no  other  way.  It  is  this  fact 
that  gives  to  the  measures  their  true  character ;  and  it  is 
the  universal  knowledge  of  this  fact,  that  has  given  them 
the  name  of  "  Compromises,"  so  expressive  of  that  true 
character. 

I  had  asked,  "  If  in  carrying  the  provisions  of  the 
Utah  and  New  Mexico  laws  to  Nebraska,  you  could  clear 
away  other  objection,  how  can  you  leave  Nebraska  'per- 
fectly free'  to  introduce  slavery  BEFORE  she  forms  a 
Constitution,  during  her  territorial  government?  while 
the  Utah  and  New  Mexico  laws  only  authorized  it  WHEN 
they  form  Constitutions,  and  are  admitted  into  the 
Union  ?"  To  this  Judge  Douglas  answered  that  the 
Utah  and  New  Mexico  laws,  also  authorized  it  BEFORE; 
and  to  prove  this,  he  read  from  one  of  their  laws,  as  fol- 
lows: 


300       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OP   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

"That  the  legislative  power  of  said  territory  shall  extend  to 
all  rightful  subjects  of  legislation,  consistent  with  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States  and  the  provisions  of  this  act." 

Now  it  is  perceived  from  the  reading  of  this,  that  there 
is  nothing  express  upon  the  subject;  but  that  the  au- 
thority is  sought  to  be  implied  merely,  for  the  general 
provision  of  "  all  rightful  subjects  of  legislation."  In. 
reply  to  this  I  insist,  as  a  legal  rule  of  construction,  as 
well  as  the  plain  popular  view  of  the  matter,  that  the 
EXPRESS  provision  for  Utah  and  New  Mexico  coming 
in  with  slavery  if  they  choose,  when  they  shall  form 
Constitutions,  is  an  EXCLUSION  of  all  implied  authority 
on  the  same  subject;  that  Congress  having  the  subject 
distinctly  in  their  minds,  when  they  made  the  express 
provision,  they  therein  expressed  their  WHOLE  meaning 
on  that  subject. 

The  judge  rather  insinuated  that  I  had  found  it  con- 
venient to  forget  the  Washington  territorial  law  passed 
in  1853.  This  was  a  division  of  Oregon,  organizing  the 
northern  part  as  the  Territory  of  Washington.  He  as- 
serted, that,  by  this  act,  the  ordinance  of  '87,  theretofore 
existing  in  Oregon,  was  repealed ;  that  nearly  all  the 
members  of  Congress  voted  for  it,  beginning  in  the  House 
of  Representatives,  with  Charles  Allen,  of  Massachusetts, 
and  ending  with  Richard  Yates,  of  Illinois  ;  and  that 
he  could  not  understand  how  those  who  now  oppose  the 
Nebraska  bill,  so  voted  there,  unless  it  was  because  it 
was  then  too  soon  after  both  the  great  political  parties 
had  ratified  the  Compromises  of  1850,  and  the  ratifica- 
tion therefore  too  fresh  to  be  then  repudiated. 

Now  I  had  seen  the  Washington  act  before;  and  I  have 
carefully  examined  it  since;  and  I  aver  that  there  is  no 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.       301 

repeal  of  the  ordinance  of  '87,  or  of  any  prohibition  of 
slavery  in  it.  In  express  terms,  there  is  absolutely 
nothing  in  the  whole  law  upon  the  subject ;  in  fact,  noth- 
ing to  lead  a  reader  to  THINK  of  the  subject.  To  my 
judgment  it  is  equally  free  from  everything  from  which 
repeal  can  be  legally  implied ;  but,  however  this  may  be, 
are  men  now  to  be  intrapped  by  a  legal  implication,  ex- 
tracted from  covert  language,  introduced,  perhaps,  for 
the  very  purpose  of  intrapping  them  ?  I  sincerely  wish 
every  man  could  read  this  law  quite  through,  carefully 
watching  every  sentence,  and  every  line,  for  a  repeal  of 
the  ordinance  of  '87,  or  anything  equivalent  to  it. 

Another  point  on  the  Washington  act.  If  it  was  in- 
tended to  be  modeled  after  the  Utah  and  New  Mexico 
acts,  as  Judge  Douglas  insists,  why  was  it  not  inserted 
in  it,  as  in  them,  that  Washington  was  to  come  in  with 
or  without  slavery  as  she  may  choose  at  the  adoption  of 
her  Constitution  ?  It  has  no  such  provision  in  it;  and  I 
defy  the  ingenuity  of  man  to  give  a  reason  for  the  omis- 
sion, other  than  that  it  was  not  intended  to  follow  the 
Utah  and  New  Mexico  laws  in  regard  to  the  question  of 
slavery. 

The  Washington  act  not  only  differs  vitally  from  the 
Utah  and  New  Mexico  acts  ;  but  the  Nebraska  act  differs 
vitally  from  both.  By  the  latter  act  the  people  are  left 
"  perfectly  free "  to  regulate  their  own  domestic  con- 
cerns, etc. ;  but  in  all  the  former,  all  their  laws  are  to  be 
submitted  to  Congress,  and  if  disapproved  are  to  be  null. 
The  Washington  act  goes  even  further ;  it  absolutely 
prohibits  the  territorial  legislation  by  very  strong  and 
guarded  language,  from  establishing  banks,  or  borrowing 
money  on  the  faith  of  the  territory.  Is  this  the  sacred 
right  of  self-government  we  hear  vaunted  so  much  ? 
No,  sir ;  the  Nebraska  bill  finds  no  model  in  the  acts  of 


302       LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

'50,  or  the  Washington  act.  It  finds  no  model  in  any 
law  from  Adam  till  to-day.  As  Phillips  says  of  Napo- 
leon, the  Nebraska  act  is  grand,  gloomy,  and  peculiar  ; 
wrapped  in  the  solitude  of  its  own  originality,  without  a 
model  and  without  a  shadow  upon  the  earth. 

In  the  course  of  his  reply,  Senator  Douglas  remarked, 
in  substance,  that  he  had  always  considered  this  govern- 
ment was  made  for  the  white  people  and  not  for  the 
negroes.  Why,  in  point  of  mere  fact,  I  think  so  too. 
But  in  this  remark  of  the  judge  there  is  a  significance, 
which  I  think  is  the  key  to  the  great  mistake  (if  thef*e 
is  any  such  mistake)  which  he  has  made  in  this  Nebraska 
measure.  It  shows  that  the  judge  has  no  very  vivid  im- 
pression that  the  negro  is  a  human  ;  and  consequently 
has  no  idea  that  there  can  be  any  moral  question  in  leg- 
islating about  him.  In  his  view,  the  question  of  whether 
a  new  country  shall  be  slave  or  free,  is  a  matter  of  as 
utter  indifference,  as  it  is  whether  his  neighbor  shall 
plant  his  farm  with  tobacco,  or  stock  it  with  horned  cat- 
tle. Now  whether  this  view  is  right  or  wrong,  it  is  very 
certain  that  the  great  mass  of  mankind  take  a  totally 
different  view.  They  consider  slavery  a  great  moral 
wrong ;  and  their  feeling  against  it  is  not  evanescent, 
but  eternal.  It  lies  at  the  very  foundation  of  their  sense 
of  justice,  and  it  can  not  be  trifled  with.  It  is  a  great 
and  durable  element  of  popular  action,  and,  I  think,  no 
statesman  can  safely  disregard  it. 

Our  Senator  also  objects  that  those  who  oppose  him 
in  this  measure  do  not  entirely  agree  with  one  another. 
He  reminds  me  that  in  my  firm  adherence  to  the  Consti- 
tutional rights  of  the  slave  states,  I  differ  widely  from 
others  who  are  co-operating  with  me  in  opposing  the 
Nebraska  bill ;  and  he  says  it  is  not  quite  fair  to  oppose 
him  in  this  Variety  of  ways.  He  should  remember  that 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        303 

he  took  us  by  surprise — astounded  us — by  this  measure. 
We  were  thunderstruck  and  stunned;  and  we  reeled  and 
fell  in  utter  confusion.  But  we  rose  each  fighting,  grasp- 
ing whatever  he  could  first  reach — a  scythe — a  pitch- 
fork— a  chopping-ax,  or  a  butcher's  cleaver.  We  struck 
in  the  direction  of  the  sound  ;  and  we  are  rapidly  closing 
in  upon  him.  He  must  not  think  to  divert  us  from  our 
purpose  by  showing  us  that  our  drill,  our  dress,  and  our 
weapons,  are  not  entirely  perfect  and  uniform.  When 
the  storm  shall  be  past,  he  shall  find  us  still  Americans; 
no  less  devoted  to  the  continued  union  and  prosperity 
of  the  country  than  heretofore. 

Finally,  the  judge  invokes  against  me  the  memory  of 
Clay  and  of  Webster.  They  were  great  men,  and  men 
of  great  deeds.  But  where  have  I  assailed  them  ?  For 
what  is  it  that  their  life-long  enemy  shall  now  make 
profit  by  assuming  to  defend  them  against  me,  their 
life-long  friend?  I  go  against  the  repeal  of  the  Mis- 
souri Compromise;  did  they  ever  go  for  it?  They  went 
for  the  Compromises  of  1850;  did  I  ever  go  against  them? 
They  were  greatly  devoted  to  the  Union ;  to  the  small 
measure  of  my  ability  was  I  ever  less  so?  Clay  and 
Webster  were  dead  before  this  question  arose ;  by  what 
authority  shall  our  Senator  say  they  would  espouse  his 
side  of  it,  if  "alive?  Mr.  Clay  was  the  leading  spirit  in 
making  the  Missouri  Compromise  ;  is  it  very  credible 
that  if  now  alive,  he  would  take  the  lead  in  the  break- 
ing of  it  ?  The  truth  is  that  some  support  from  Whigs 
is  now  a  necessity  with  the  judge,  and  for  this  it  is  that 
the  names  of  Clay  and  Webster  are  now  invoked.  His 
old  friends  have  deserted  him  in  such  numbers  as  to 
leave  too  few  to  live  by.  He  came  ta  his  own,  and  his 
own  received  him  not;  and  lo !  he  turns  unto  the 
Gentiles. 


304       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

A  word  now  as  to  the  judge's  desperate  assumption 
that  the  Compromises  of  1860  had  no  connection  with 
one  another;  that  Illinois  came  into  the  Union  as  a 
slave  state  ;  and  some  other  similar  ones.  This  is  no 
other  than  a  bold  denial  of  the  history  of  the  country. 
If  we  do  not  know  that  the  Compromises  of  1850  were 
dependent  on  each  other;  if  we  do  not  know  that  Illi- 
nois came  into  the  Union  as  a  free  state — we  do  not 
know  anything.  If  we  do  not  know  these  things,  we 
do  not  know  that  we  ever  had  a  Revolutionary  war,  or 
such  a  chief  as  Washington.  To  deny  these  things  is  to 
deny  our  national  axioms — or  dogmas  at  least;  and  it 
puts  an  end  to  all  argument.  If  a  man  will  stand  up, 
and  assert,  and  repeat,  and  reassert,  that  two  and  two 
do  not  make  four,  I  know  nothing  in  the  power  of  argu- 
ment that  can  stop  him.  I  think  I  can  answer  the  judge 
so  long  as  he  sticks  to  the  premises;  but  when  he  flies 
from  them,  I  can  not  work  an  argument  into  the  con- 
sistency of  a  maternal  gag,  and  actually  close  his  mouth 
with  it.  In  such  a  case  I  can  only  commend  him  to 
the  seventy  thousand  answers  just  in  from  Pennsylvania, 
Ohio,  and  Indiana. 


-3** 


k" 

- 


* 


;:*&' 


LIFE    AND    SPEECHES 


HANNIBAL     HAMLIN. 


JOHN    L.    HAYES. 


26  (305) 


LIFE  OF  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN. 


To  form  an  accurate  opinion  of  the  character  of  an 
individual,  it  is  necessary  to  estimate  that  of  the  people 
from  which  he  has  sprung,  and  among  whom  he  has 
lived.  The  people  of  Maine,  descended  from  the  Eng- 
lish Puritans  and  merchant  adventurers,  have  preserved 
in  an  eminent  degree  the  characteristic  traits  impressed 
by  their  origin,  prominent  among  which  are  a  devotion 
to  the  doctrines  of  popular  liberty,  and  the  spirit  of 
commercial  enterprise.  Possessing  a  country  where  the 
necessities  of  soil  and  climate  demand  unceasing  exer- 
tion, and  where  the  bounties  of  nature  are  offered  only 
to  toil,  they  feel  the  nature  and  dignity  of  labor,  and 
are  sensitive  as  to  its  rights.  Less  exclusively  devoted 
to  agriculture  than  the  people  of  any  other  state,  they 
seek  their  wealth  in  the  forest  and  on  the  sea.  Trained 
by  their  perilous  toil,  like  the  pioneers  of  the  West,  they 
are  hardy,  athletic,  self-reliant,  and  brave.  As  Maine 
surpasses  all  the  other  states  in  the  tonnaga  of  her  ship- 
ping and  the  extent  of  maritime  privileges,  the  charac- 
ter of  her  people  is  strongly  marked  by  their  commercial 
relations.  Commerce,  as  it  depends  upon  the  benefits 
derived  from  mutual  exchanges  with  distant  countries, 
is  opposed  to  exclusiveness  and  local  prejudice.  Thus, 

(307) 


308        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL  HAMLItf. 

with  the  intelligence,  refinement,  and  wealth  which  com- 
merce has  given  to  this  maritime  state,  and  with  the  deep 
conviction  of  the"  value  of  their  own  system  of  free  labor, 
we  find  among  the  people  of  Maine  a  most  intimate 
knowledge  and  appreciation  of  the  men,  institutions,  and 
rights  of  the  other  states,  and  a  devoted  attachment  to 
the  Union  as  the  source  of  national  and  commercial 
prosperity. 

Such  are  the  people  from  whom  has  sprung  the  indi- 
vidual who  now  occupies  the  proud  position  of  candidate 
for  the  Vice-Presidency  of  the  United  States,  and  such 
the  people  who,  by  making  him  for  more  than  twenty 
years  the  recipient  of  their  highest  honors,  have  de- 
clared him  to  be  a  true  representative  of  their  senti- 
ments and  character. 

HANNIBAL  HAMLIN,  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  is  the 
son  of  Cyrus  Hamlin  and  Anna  Livermore,  and  was 
born  in  Paris,  the  shire  town  of  the  county  of  Oxford, 
in  Maine,  on  the  27th  of  August,  1809.  Cyrus  Ham- 
lin, a  physician  by  profession,  upon  removing  from  his 
native  State,  Massachusetts,  first  settled  in  the  town  of 
Livermore,  where  he  married  a  daughter  of  Deacon  Eli- 
jah Livermore,  a  principal  proprietor  of  that  town,  and 
connected  with  the  distinguished  family  of  that  name  in 
New  Hampshire.  While  in  Livermore,  Dr.  Hamlin  built 
the  dwelling-house  in  which  were  born  the  three  broth- 
ers Washburne,  now  so  worthily  representing  three  states 
in  Congress. 

On  the  formation  of  the  county  of  Oxford,  Dr.  Ham- 
lin received  the  responsible  appointment  of  Clerk  of  the 
Courts  of  the  county,  and  upon  the  separation  of  Maine 
from  Massachusetts,  was  appointed  High  Sheriff  of  the 
county,  which  office  he  held  for  several  years.  He  died 
in  1828,  aged  about  58,  universally  respected  for  his 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN,        309 

probity,  benevolence,  and  Christian  character,  having 
been  for  many  years  a  member  of  the  Baptist  Church. 

Dr.  Hamlin's  father,  the  grandfather  of  Hannibal,  re- 
sided in  Massachusetts,  and  before  the  Revolution  com- 
manded a  company  of  Minute  Men,  in  which  five  of  hia 
sons  were  enrolled.  One  of  them  served  during  the 
Revolutionary  war,  and  was  a  member  of  the  Society  of 
Cincinnati. 

Hannibal  was  the  sixth  and  youngest  son  of  seven 
children,  and  is  not  the  only  one  of  his  family  who  has 
held  a  prominent  position  in  his  State,  one  of  whom, 
Hon.  Elijah  Hamlin,  an  elder  brother,  residing  at  Ban- 
gor,  having  been  a  member  of  the  Legislature  and  Senate 
of  Maine,  and  also  land  agent  of  the  State,  and  having 
been  a  candidate  of  his  party  for  the  positions  of  mem- 
ber of  Congress  and  Governor  of  Maine. 

Hannibal  Hamlin  received  his  early  instruction  at  a 
private  school  in  Paris,  and  at  a  public  academy  in 
Hebron,  an  adjoining  town.  It  was  his  intention  to 
obtain  a  collegiate  education,  and  he  was  nearly  fitted  for 
college,  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  when  an  elder  brother,  who 
it  was  designed  should  reside  at  home  and  carry  on  the 
farm,  failed  in  health  and  left  to  pursue  the  study  of 
medicine.  The  usage  of  the  country  required  that  one, 
at  least,  of  the  sons  of  the  family  should  remain  at  the 
homestead,  and  Hannibal  left  his  studies  at  the  academy, 
relinquished  the  prospects  of  a  collegiate  career,  and  took 
his  place  with  the  laborers  on  the  home  farm. 

For  two  years,  he  worked  there  with  the  steadiness  of  a 
man,  when,  at  his  father's  instance,  and  upon  the  assur- 
ance that  his  assistance  could  be  dispensed  with,  he 
determined  to  commence  the  study  of  the  law.  Quit- 
ting home,  he  read  law  in  the  office  of  his  older  brother, 
Elijah,  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  State,  when  his  father's 


310        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN. 

death  again  broke  up  his  plans.  The  only  property 
left  by  his  father  was  the  farm,  which  was  given  to  his 
mother,  and  filial  duty  left  him  no  alternative  but  to 
remain  and  take  charge  of  the  farm,  where  he  labored 
unremittingly  for  two  years  after  his  father's  death. 

Great  as  the  sacrifice  required  in  the  abandonment  of 
a  professional  career  must  have  seemed  to  an  ambitious 
young  man,  it  was  doubtless  a  blessing  in  disguise.  The 
seclusion  of  a  rural  life  developed,  without  doubt,  his 
reflective  faculties,  and  the  necessity  of  daily  toil  gave 
that  contempt  for  personal  indulgence,  and  that  energy 
of  will  which  have  since  distinguished  the  public  man. 
The  long  days  of  manual  toil  were  not  unrelieved  by 
intellectual  rest.  His  father's  private  library,  and  the 
well-selected  books  of  the  "social  library,"  one  of  the 
"  institutions "  of  Maine,  afforded  reading  which  may 
have  been  more  profitable  for  his  general  culture  than 
the  technical  studies  of  a  profession. 

The  happy  influences  of  nature  ministered  also  to  his 
culture.  The  county,  in  which  he  resided,  presents  land- 
scape scenery  of  great  magnificence.  Lofty  mountains, 
of  massive  granite,  may  be  seen  rising  abruptly,  one 
behind  the  other,  in  solemn  grandeur,  in  the  distance, 
while  glorious  views  are  opened  of  deep-wooded  valleys, 
and  small  but  beautiful  lakes,  lying  in  amphitheaters  of 
hills. 

Freedom  has  its  birth-place  in  mountain  homes,  and 
the  future  advocate  of  freedom  may  have  felt  the  inspir- 
ation of  such  scenery,  so  well  expressed  by  the  words  of 
one  of  Maine's  most  gifted  sons  : 

"  As  long  as  yonder  firs  shall  spread 
Their  green  arms  o'er  the  mountain's  head, 
As  long  as  yonder  cliff  shall  stand, 
Where  join  the  ocean  and  the  land, 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN.        311 

Shall  those  cliffs  and  mountains  be 
Proud  retreats  for  liberty." — UPHAM. 

An  incident  in  the  life  of  young  Hamlin,  during  the 
period  of  his  home  labors,  illustrates  the  practical  train- 
ing to  which  the  young  men  of  New  England  are  sub- 
jected. When  Hannibal  was  about  nineteen  years  old, 
his  father  having  bought  a  township  of  land  on  Dead 
river,  for  lumbering  purposes,  and  being  unable  to  com- 
plete the  survey  in  the  fall,  intrusted  the  work  to  his  son. 
The  township  was  distant  about  twelve  miles  from  any 
settlement,  and  covered  with  the  primeval  forest.  On 
the  last  of  March,  the  young  man  took  his  compass  and 
chain,  and  started  for  the  woods  on  snow-shoes,  with  a 
party  under  his  charge,  himself  "sacking,"  as  it  is  called 
in  woodman's  phrase,  his  part  of  the  necessary  provisions 
on  his  back.  He  remained  in  the  woods  over  a  month, 
sleeping  wherever  the  night  overtook  them,  often  in  the 
gorges  of  the  mountains  upon  the  snow,  with  a  depth  of 
seven  feet  beneath  him. 

Another  example  will  occur  to.  all  of  a  young  man, 
whose  first  training  for  a  life  of  practical  labor,  which 
has  blessed  his  country  and  the  world,  was  made  as  a 
surveyor. 

In  the  spring  of  1830,  shortly  before  arriving  at  his 
majority,  Mr.  Hamlin,  in  company  with  a  young  man 
who  has  since  attained  an  honorable  public  position, 
Horatio  King,  at  present  First  Assistant  Postmaster- 
General  of  the  United  States,  bought,  on  credit,  a  Dem- 
ocratic paper  published  in  Paris,  called  the  Jeffersonian, 
a  name  indicative  of  the  school  of  politics  of  which  Mr. 
Hamlin  has  been  so  faithful  a  disciple  and  teacher. 
While  connected  with  the  paper,  Mr.  Hamlin,  although 
constantly  furnishing  the  contributions  of  his  pen,  both 
in  prose  and  verse,  stood  regularly  at  the  case,  and  set  the 


312        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN. 

types  with  his  own  hands.  This  editorial  experience 
was  an  important  part  of  the  education  of  the  future 
statesman,  as  it  compelled  him  to  study  constitutional 
and  political  history,  and  gave  a  definiteness  to  his  polit- 
ical opinions,  which  is  best  secured  by  writing  under 
responsibility  to  the  public  eye. 

In  the  fall  of  1830,  Mr.  Hamlin  sold  out  his  interest 
in  the  Jeffersonian  to  his  partner,  and  following  the  ad- 
vice of  his  mother,  recommenced  the  study  of  the  law 
with  Hon.  Joseph  G.  Cole,  of  Paris,  afterward  a  judge 
of  the  Circuit  Court.  He  subsequently  entered  the  office 
of  Messrs.  Fessenden,  Deblois  &  Fessenden,  of  Portland, 
and  it  is  an  interesting  coincidence,  that  the  younger 
partner  of  that  firm  is  now  the  distinguished  colleague 
of  Mr.  Hamlin  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States. 

After  reading  law  the  required  term — three  years — 
Mr.  Hamlin  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  his  native  county, 
and  at  once  entered  upon  the  responsibilities  of  his  pro- 
fession, as,  on  the  day  of  his  admission,  he  was  retained 
in  an  important  case,  argued  it  to  the  jury,  and  obtained 
a  verdict.  In  April,  1833,  he  removed  to  Hampden,  a 
town  with  about  four  thousand  inhabitants,  and  a  village 
of  fifteen  hundred,  situated  on  the  Penobscot  river,  six 
miles  below  the  city  of  Bangor,  where  he  now  resides. 

Mr.  Hamlin  entered  at  once  on  an  extensive  practice 
in  his  profession,  his  reputation  soon  being  established 
as  a  faithful  and  able  lawyer.  His  business  habits,  and 
the  talent  displayed  as  a  public  speaker  at  the  bar,  where 
he,  from  the  first,  argued  his  own  causes,  and  as  a  lec- 
turer and  speaker  in  Lyceums,  and  other  popular  assem- 
blies, as  well  as  the  earnestness  and  distinctness  of  his 
political  opinions,  soon  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
dominant  party,  and  within  three  years  from  the  time 
of  his  taking  up  his  residence  among  them,  his  fellow- 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   HANNIBAL   HAMLIN.       313 

citizens  elected  him  to  a  seat  in  the  lower  house  of  the 
Legislature. 

He  was  a  member  of  the  State  Legislature  of  Maine 
for  the  years  1836,  '37,  '38,  '39,  and  '40.  He  became  at 
once  a  prominent  member  of  the  House,  and  one  of  the 
leaders  of  his  party,  assuming  a  leading  part  in  all  the 
principal  debates,  and  was  also  one  of  the  most  active 
business  men  in  the  body.  He  was  Speaker  of  the  House 
for  the  years  1837,  '39,  and  '40,  being  only  twenty- 
seven  years  of  age  when  first  elected  Speaker,  and  at  the 
close  of  each  year  received  the  unanimous  vote  of  thanks 
of  the  House  for  the  manner  in  which  he  discharged  his 
duties. 

In  1840  he  was  candidate  for  Congress,  during  the 
Harrison  tornado,  and  was  defeated  in  a  poll  of  some 
fifteen  thousand,  by  less  than  two  hundred  votes.  It  is 
worthy  of  notice,  that  in  that  election,  he  canvassed  the 
district  with  his  opponent,  Hon.  Elisha  H.  Allen,  this 
being  the  first  instance,  it  is  believed,  in  which  it  was 
ever  done  in  New  England. 

In  1843,  the  election  having  been  postponed  one  year, 
in  consequence  of  a  new  apportionment  of  the  census, 
Mr.  Hamlin  was  again  a  candidate,  running  against  his 
former  competitor,  and  was  elected  by  about  a  thousand 
majority. 

In  1844,  Mr.  Hamlin  was  again  elected  to  the  House 
of  Representatives,  and,  during  this  Congress,  was  Chair- 
man of  the  Committee  on  Elections,  and  a  member  of 
the  Committee  on  Naval  Affairs.  On  returning  home, 
in  March,  1847,  on  completion  of  his  service  in  the 
House,  his  town  had  not  elected  a  Representative  to  the 
State  Legislature,  it  requiring  a  majority  of  all  the  votes, 
and  Mr.  Hamlin  being  put  in  nomination,  was  elected 
and  served  in  1847. 
27 


814       LIFE    AND   SPEECHES    OP    HANNIBAL    HAMLIN. 

In  May,  1848,  Gov.  Fairfield,  then  Senator  from  Maine, 
Laving  deceased,  Mr.  Hamlin  was  elected  to  the  Senate 
of  the  United  States,  to  fill  the  unexpired  term  of  four 
years,  and  was  re-elected  on  the  25th  of  July,  1851,  after 
encountering  the  bitter  hostility  of  the  then  pro-slavery 
Democrats,  they  refusing  to  vote  for  him  to  the  last,  not- 
withstanding he  was  the  regular  nominee. 

The  Augusta  Age,  the  then  official  paper  of  its  party — 
the  Democratic  organ,  of  August  27,  1850,  thus  congrat- 
ulated its  party  upon  the  election  of  Mr.  Hamlin  to  the 
Senate : 

"  Hon.  Hannibal  Hamlin,  the  regular  Democratic  nominee  for 
United  States  Senator,  was  elected  in  both  Houses  of  the  Legis- 
lature, on  Thursday  last. 

"We  congratulate  the  Democracy  of  the  State  upon  the  result. 
We  rejoice  that  the  question  has  been  finally  disposed  of  in  a 
manner  conformable  to  the  wishes  and  expectations  of  a  great 
majority  of  the  Democratic  party  of  Maine. 

"The  failure  to  elect  Mr.  Hamlin  at  an  earlier  period  in  the 
session,  was  occasioned  by  the  refusal  of  a  small  portion  of  the 
Democratic  members  to  support  him,  the  pretest  of  their  opposition 

BEING    THE    OPINIONS    HE    ENTERTAINED    UPON    THE    SUBJECT    OF     THE 

EXTENSION  OF  SLAVERY,  and  the  determination  which  he  cherished 
of  obeying  the  resolutions  of  instruction  passed  by  the  last  Legis- 
lature in  relation  to  that  subject. 

"After  repeated  attempts  to  effect  an  election  had  been  made 
without  success,  several  members  of  the  free-soil  party,  believ- 
ing that  there  was  an  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  Democrats  op- 
posed to  Mr.  Hamlin,  to  cut  him  doivn,  IN  CONSEQUENCE  OF  HIS 

OPPOSITION  TO  THE  INTRODUCTION  OF  SLAVERY   INTO  TERRITORY  NOW 

FREE,  although  not  concurring  with  him  in  political  opinions, 
voluntarily  gave  him  their  votes,  amounting  to  ten  in  the  House 
of  Eepresentatives  and  three  in  the  Senate,  which  secured  his 
election.  It  was  certainly  an  act  of  magnanimity,  which  can  not 
fail  to  be  appreciated,  and  particularly  as  it  was  a  free-will 
offering  (from  men  who  are  in  an  opposing  political  organiza- 
tion) to  Mr.  Hamlin,  FOR  HIS  FIRM  ADHERENCE  TO  PRINCIPLES 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN.         315 

HELD    IN  COMMON    BY    THEM  WITH   THE    GREAT    MASS    OF    THE    PEOPLE 
OF   THE  NORTH,  IRRESPECTIVE  OF  PARTY  DISTINCTIONS." 

Mr.  Hamlin  served  in  the  Senate  and  acted  with  the 
Democratic  party  until  1854,  voting,  however,  uniform- 
ly against  all  projects  for  slavery  extension.  He  then 
gave  public  notice  in  the  Senate  of  the  reasons  why 
he  would  no  longer  co-operate  with  the  party,  and  re- 
signed his  position  as  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
Commerce. 

In  June,  1856,  he  was  nominated  by  the  Eepublicans 
in  Maine  as  candidate  for  Governor,  the  Democratic  party 
having  carried  the  State  the  year  before,  and  being  then 
in  power.  He  entered  upon  the  canvass  in  July,  and 
addressed  public  meetings  nearly  a  hundred  times.  He 
was  elected  by  eighteen  thousand  majority,  over  two 
opponents,  and  twenty-three  thousand  majority  over  his 
Democratic  opponent;  more  than  double  the  majority 
that  was  ever  given  in  a  contested  election. 

On  the  7th  of  January,  1857,  he  resigned  his  seat  in 
the  Senate,  and  was,  on  the  same  day,  inaugurated  Gov- 
ernor. 

On  the  16th  of  the  same  month,  he  was  re-elected 
United  States  Senator  for  six  years  ;  and  on  the  20th  of 
February  following,  resigned  the  office  of  Governor,  and 
returned  to  Washington  on  the  4th  of  March. 

It  may  be  said,  with  strict  truth,  that  during  the  whole 
period  of  his  congressional  life,  Mr.  Hamlin  has  pre-em- 
inently distinguished  himself  as  a  prompt,  efficient,  and 
intelligent  business  man.  His  first  object  was  to  dis- 
charge the  business  demands  made  upon  him  by  his  own 
constituents.  He  never  received  a  business  letter  with- 
out promptly  answering  it. 

All  parties  in  Maine  demanded  his  services,  and  have 
always  accorded  to  him  the  highest  credit  for  the  prompt- 


316        LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OP   HANNIBAL   HAMLIN. 

ness  and  fidelity  displayed  in  the  charge  of  their  interests. 
The  heads  of  the  Treasury,  including  such  men  as  Secre- 
tary Guthrie,  Acting  and  Assistant  Secretaries  Hodge 
and  Washington,  and  Governor  Anderson,  Commissioner 
of  Customs,  have  declared  him  to  be  the  best  business 
man  in  the  Senate^ 

Mr.  Hamlin  has  been  a  member  of  that  most  important 
Committee,  that  on  Commerce,  during  his  whole  term  in 
the  Senate,  and  was  chairman  seven  years. 

In  addition  to  the  vast  number  of  minor  matters  relat- 
ing to  his  own  constituents  and  State  which  he  took  care 
of,  as  chairman  of  his  committee,  he  had  the  supervision 
of  all  the  great  questions  and  measures  affecting  the  com- 
merce of  the  country,  both  domestic  and  foreign,  which 
were  acted  upon  by  that  committee,  no  bill  being  reported 
which  he  did  not  fully  understand  by  personal  investiga- 
tion. 

Among  the  important  measures  instituted  and  reported 
by  that  committee,  were  those  relating  to  the  improve- 
ment of  harbors,  rivers,  and  lakes,  the  whole  system  of 
light-houses,  the  protection  of  passengers  on  steam  and 
sailing  vessels,  the  location  and  establishment  of  custom- 
houses, the  fixing  of  ports  of  entry  and  delivery,  and 
measures  connected  with  tne  coast  survey,  besides  a  mul- 
titude of  other  measures  of  less  importance  connected 
•with  commerce  in  all  its  ramifications. 

The  very  important  act  "  For  the  better  security  of 
lives  of  passengers  on  board  of  vessels  impelled  in  whole 
or  in  part  by  steam,"  passed  in  August,  1852,  was  report- 
ed to  the  Senate  by  Mr.  Davis,  of  Massachusetts,  but  was 
prepared  by  Mr.  Hamlin  and  Mr.  Davis  jointly,  and  was 
sustained  by  Mr.  Hamlin  in  several  speeches  in  the  Sen- 
ate. During  all  the  time  subsequent  to  the  passage  of 
the  bill,  while  Mr.  Hamlia  was  chairman,  all  the  amend- 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   HANNIBAL   HAMLIN.       317 

atory  acts  in  relation  to  that  subject  have  been  reported 
and  supported  by  him,  and  he  has  now  charge  of  the 
bill  passed  by  the  House  on  the  same  subject.  All  the 
members  of  the  Board  of  Supervising  Inspectors,  ap- 
pointed under  these  laws,  will  bear  testimony  to  the 
laborious  investigation  and  practicability  displayed  by 
Mr.  Hamlin  in  connection  with  this  important  matter. 

The  bill  regulating  the  liability  of  shipowners,  was 
reported  by  Mr.  Hamlin,  at  the  second  session  of  the 
Thirty-first  Congress,  and  was  carried  through  the  Sen- 
ate mainly  by  his  efforts.  This  bill  placed  American 
navigation  on  the  same  footing  with  British  navigation, 
and  was  deemed,  by  American  merchants,  of  very  great 
importance.  So  important  was  it  considered  by  the  New 
York  merchants,  that  they  tendered  him  a  public  dinner 
as  a  testimonial  of  their  appreciation  of  his  services, 
which,  however,  he  declined. 

The  codification  of  the  whole  revenue  laws,  prepared 
under  Secretary  Guthrie,  was  made  in  pursuance  of  a 
resolution  introduced  by  Mr.  Hamlin  in  the  Senate,  Jan- 
uary 19,  1853,  who  subsequently  obtained  an  appropria- 
tion of  ten  thousand  dollars  for  the  same. 

It  was  by  the  efforts  of  Mr.  Hamlin  that  appropria- 
tions were  made  for  the  construction  of  the  various 
custom-houses,  which  have  been  built  within  the  last 
few  years — to  wit:  at  Wheeling,  Cincinnati,  St.  Louis, 
Bangor,  Belfast,  Portsmouth,  Galveston,  Georgetown, 
Milwaukie,  Norfolk,  Chicago,  and  more  than  twenty 
other  points  in  different  parts  of  the  country.  It  was  a 
proviso  of  his  that  the  cost  of  construction  should,  in  all 
cases,  be  limited  to  the  amount  appropriated. 

Mr.  Hamlin  had  made  two  elaborate  speeches  on  the 
fisheries,  as  connected  with  the  commerce  and  naval  serv- 
ice of  the  country.  He  has  also  sustained  the  ocean 


318        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  HANNIBAL  HAMLIIf. 

mail  service  as  auxiliary  to  the  commerce  of  the  country. 
An  important  report  was  made  by  him  exhibiting  the 
commerciaJ  relations  between  this  country  and  Brazil. 

He  has  always  been  a  friend  to  a  general  system  of 
improvement  of  harbors  and  rivers,  and  besides  report- 
ing many  bills,  has  made  several  speeches  in  defense  of 
the  system. 

The  provision  of  law  which  grants  pensions  to  the 
•widows  of  Revolutionary  soldiers  since  1800,  was  the 
work  of  Mr.  Hamlin. 

While  a  member  of  the  House,  Mr.  Hamlin  made  a 
speech  giving  notice  to  the  British  Government  to  term- 
inate the  joint  occupancy  of  the  Territory  of  Oregon. 

This  was  a  progressive  and,  it  may  be  said,  prophetic 
speech.  In  this,  he  indicated  a  Pacific  Railroad,  and 
predicted  the  establishment  of  great  commercial  states 
on  the  shores  of  the  Pacific. 

He  was  an  early  friend  of  a  graduation  in  the  price  of 
public  lands.  He  was  not,  at  that  time,  a  supporter  of 
the  homestead  bill,  but  has  been,  for  several  years  past, 
earnestly  and  decidedly  so. 

Mr.  Hamlin  was  in  favor  of  the  bill  appropriating  land 
for  agricultural  colleges,  and  another  bill  making  appro- 
priations for  the  benefit  of  the  indigent  insane.  He  was 
an  earnest  advocate  of  the  admission  of  California,  and 
made  the  first  elaborate  speech  in  the  Senate  in  favor 
of  its  admission. 

Mr.  Hamlin  voted  with  his  party  for  the  tariff  of  1846, 
although  he  never  hesitated  to  express  his  personal  pref- 
erence for  a  system  of  specific  duties. 

The  question  arising  in  the  House  on  the  5th  of  Jan- 
uary, 1843,  in  relation  to  the  twenty-first  rule  prohibit- 
ing the  reception  of  abolition  petitions,  after  some 
remarks  by  Mr.  Black,  who  said  he  hoped  the  House 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN.        319 

would  adopt  the  amendment  which  he  had  proposed,  to 
instruct  the  Committee  on  Rules  to  report  to  the  House 
that  rule  by  which  abolitionists  would  be  debarred  from 
intruding  on  them  their  incendiary  doctrines,  the  effect 
and  operation  of  which  were  most  damnable.  He  de- 
sired the  vote  to  be  recorded  by  yeas  and  nays  ;  and  he 
relied  confidently  upon  a  democratic  majority  to  sustain 
his  motion.  Mr.  Hamlin,  after  declaring  that  the  time, 
as  he  trusted,  had  gone  by  (if  it  ever  existed)  when  the 
galvanic  starts,  and  fits,  and  deep  intonations  of  any 
gentleman  could  produce  an  impression  in  that  hall, 
and  that  lie  should  vote  irrespective  of  all  such  influences, 
on  this  and  every  other  question,  according  to  the  dic- 
tates of  right  and  wrong,  notwithstanding  the  defiance 
of  the  gentleman  from  Georgia;  proceeded  to  say  that 
he  should  vote  against  the  rule,  because  he  believed  that 
the  right  of  petition  was  not  an  abstraction,  but  a  clear, 
plain,  and  sacred  Constitutional  right,  neither  to  be 
denied  or  infringed  upon.  Such  being  its  character  it 
was  one  which  could  not  be  controlled  by  this  or  any 
other  legislative  body  without  a  Constitutional  violation. 
It  was  a  Constitutional  right  disconnected  with  the  opin- 
ions of  any  body  of  men.  When  the  House  said  in 
advance  that  they  would  not  receive  petitions  upon  any 
particular  subject,  they  undertook  to  prejudge,  and  they 
did  prejudge  the  matter,  and  to  exclude  individuals  from 
privileges  which  Constitutionally  belonged  to  them.  It 
was  confounding  our  duty  of  receiving  with  the  right  to 
act  after  reception.  He  very  well  understood  that  the 
action  of  the  House  upon  petitions  afteir  they  were  re- 
ceived, was  to  fully  and  clearly  be  determined  by  a  ma- 
jority. -The  right  to  petition  was  a  distinct  question; 
the  power  of  the  House  to  reject  or  refuse  the  prayer  is 
another  and  distinct  proposition. 


320        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN. 

If  the  right  of  the  people  to  have  their  petitions  re- 
ceived, is  dependent  upon  the  will  of  the  majority,  then 
there  was  no  question,  over  which  a  majority,  perhaps 
arbitrary  and  tyrannical,  might  not  exercise  that  right; 
and  the  right  of  petition  becomes  then,  not  the  right  of 
a  Constitution,  but  a  right  dependent  upon  the  will  of  a 
majority.  *  *  *  He  was  not  disposed  to  argue  these 
questions.  The  conclusions  which  he  drew  from  them 
were  irresistible  to  his  own  mind.  For  the  reasons 
stated,  or  rather  upon  these  principles,  as  stated,  he  must 
vote  against  the  twenty-first  rule,  and  in  favor  of  receiv- 
ing such  petitions  as  were  presented. 

On  the  23d  of  January,  1845.  the  House  having  re- 
solved itself  into  a  Committee  of  the  Whole,  and  having 
under  consideration  the  joint  resolutions  for  the  re- 
annexation  of  Texas  to  the  Union,  Mr.  Hamlin  made 
a  speech  which  is  imperfectly  and  partially  reported  in. 
the  Congressional  Globe.  He  observed,  that  he  enter- 
tained but  little  hope  that  any  suggestions  that  he  might 
offer  in  this  oft-discussed  question  would  produce  much 
impression  within  these  walls.  Yet  the  intrinsic  im- 
portance of  the  question  before  the  House,  and  its  ex- 
tensive influence  on  the  most  momentous  interests  of 
the  country,  would,  he  hoped,  plead  his  excuse  if  he  oc- 
cupied his  "  brief  hour  within  that  hall." 

We  possessed  a  country  favored  of  Heaven,  extending 
from  the  frozen  regions  of  the  North,  to  the  fair,  and 
rich,  and  smiling  lands  beneath  the  southern  sun,  and 
spreading  from  the  Atlantic  ocean,  which  had  for  cen- 
turies dashed  with  unceasing  wave  upon  our  eastern  sea- 
board, back,  back  to  the  Pacific,  whose  more  gentle 
murmurs  broke  upon  our  western  shores.  We  had  a 
country  which  embraced  every  climate  of  the  globe,  and 
which  brought  forth,  in  rich  abundance,  almost  every 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN.        321 

natural  product  known  to  the  world.  Over  all  this 
glory  the  light  of  knowledge  and  the  purer  light  of 
Christianity  shed  their  blended  rays,  while  a  mild  system 
of  municipal  laws  spread  the  shield  of  its  protection  over 
the  homes  of  a  happy  people.  Now,  it  must  be  manifest 
at  a  glance,  that  a  government  extended  over  so  wide  a 
space,  and  embracing  interests  so  multifarious,  and  men 
so  widely  separated  from  each  other,  not  merely  in  local 
habitation,  but  in  feelings,  sentiments,  and  habits,  must 
of  necessity  be  founded  on  compromise;  and  such  was, 
in  fact,  the  basis  of  our  free  republican  government, 
reposing  upon  the  confidence  of  its  people.  He  invoked 
the  legislators  of  such  a  country  to  come  up  to  the  im- 
portant question  before  them,  with  impulses  and  feelings 
worthy  of  its  importance  and  of  their  own  high  station, 
and  with  views  wide  and  enlarged,  as  was  that  extended 
domain  over  which  the  voice  of  Providence,  speaking 
through  the  voices  of  a  free  people,  had  made  them  for 
a  time  the  rulers. 

The  gentleman  who  had  preceded  Mr.  Hamlin  had  ably 
discussed  those  Constitutional  provisions  under  which 
it  was  now  claimed  that  he  should  act.  It  was  not, 
therefore,  his  intention  specially  to  present  any  views 
he  might  entertain  as  to  the  Constitutionality  or  uncon- 
stitutionality  of  the  act  to  which  they  were  invoked.  He 
would  merely  say  this,  that  from  a  cool,  calm,  and  delib- 
erate view  of  the  question,  he  had  arrived  at  a  conclusion 
which  would  justify  him  in  giving  his  ready  sanction  to 
the  proposed  annexation  of  Texas.  All  he  desired  was 
such  provisions  and  restrictions  as  should  present  it  in 
the  form  of  a  national,  and  not  a  sectional  question,  but 
alike  just  and  fair  to  all.  With  these  conditions  and  re- 
strictions, Mr.  Hamlin  was  prepared  to  go  for  immediate 
annexation.  He  should,  indeed,  have  preferred  that  this 


322        LIFE  AND   SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN. 

measure  should  have  been  left  to  the  incoming  adminis- 
tration, which,  as  it  had  received  the  confidence  of  the 
people  in  advance,  would  vindicate  their  choice  by  prov- 
ing themselves  worthy  of  it.  The  present  administra- 
tion, as  every  one  knew,  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  no 
party,  and  the  respect  of  but  few  men,  and  he  had  there- 
fore hoped  that  a  measure  of  such  importance  would 
have  been  reserved  for  an  administration  which  would 
justly  possess  the  confidence  of  the  nation.  But  the 
question  was  now  before  them ;  it  was  there,  and  it  was 
now  their  duty  to  examine  it.  This  great  and  important 
national  question  had  been  dragged  down,  down,  down, 
from  its  own  proper  sphere,  to  a  wretched,  contemptible 
one  for  extending  and  perpetuating  slavery.  Yes,  he 
repeated  it,  the  attempt  had  been  made  by  certain  gen- 
tlemen to  degrade  it  from  its  nationality  into  a  ques- 
tion for  promoting  one  narrow  sectional  interest — the 
strengthening  of  slave  power.  Mr.  Hamlin  proposed  to 
examine  it  as  it  had  been  presented  to  the  Senate  and  to 
the  nation  by  the  present  administration,  in  its  corre- 
spondence. He  should  endeavor  to  trace  its  history 
from  the  first  incipient  step  until  it  had  at  length 
reached  this  hall,  and  the  position  it  now  occupied 
there.  He  should  treat  it  as  a  question  of  the  rean- 
nexation  of  Texas,  and  not  merely  of  the  Texan  terri- 
tory, for  there  was  a  broad  distinction  between  annexing 
a  foreign  government  and  admitting  a  territory  which  had 
belonged  to  us  before.  Mr.  Hamlin  was  well  aware  that 
with  a  view  to  great  and  important  national  purposes, 
a  union  of  this  territory  of  Texas  with  our  own  had 
been  desired  by  almost  all  the  administrations  of  govern- 
ment from  the  days  of  Mr.  Jefferson.  In  that  desire  Mr. 
Hamlin  heartily  concurred.  Let  it  come  now,  as  it  would 
have  come  then,  and  he  should  be  satisfied.  What  had 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN.        323 

been  the  origin  of  this  idea  of  re-annexing  a  sovereign 
power  to  the  Union  ?  It  had  originated,  if  the  published 
correspondence  told  the  truth,  in  a  letter  from  a  gentle- 
man of  Baltimore,  suggesting  that  the  British  Govern- 
ment cherished  the  design  of  effecting  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  Texas.  Such  had  been  the  language  of  the 
late  lamented  Secretary  Upsher ;  and  he  called  the 
attention  of  our  agents  in  Texas  to  the  designs  thus 
attributed  to  the  British  ministry.  Such  had  been  the 
original  cause  of  the  invitation  to  Texas  to  negotiate 
for  a  Union.  Was  there  any  force  in  this  consideration 
that  should  engage  our  Government  to  look  so  favorably 
on  the  plan,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  we  were  gravely 
told  that  the  official  denial  of  the  British  Government 
that  she  did  not  design  to  interfere  with  that  institu- 
tion, was  entitled  to  no  confidence;  and  that  we  must 
not  look  at  the  course  in  which  the  question  was  pre- 
sented in  the  correspondence  of  our  Government?  He 
thought  otherwise.  If  our  Government  had  deemed  a 
mere  rumor  of  sufficient  importance  to  justify  them  in 
entering  into  negotiations  with  a  foreign  power,  should 
they  not  regard  the  correspondence  furnished  them  as 
demanding  an  examination  for  the  purpose  of  seeing 
upon  what  ground  the  present  administration  had  based 
its  acts?  What  consistency!  when  our  Government, 
on  mere  rumor,  could  enter  into  a  foreign  negotiation, 
yet  Congress  was  not  to  examine  even  the  correspond- 
ence of  our  own  official  agents.  The  President,  in 
communicating  the  correspondence  to  the  House,  had 
indeed  elevated  it  above  that  degrading  position,  yet  the 
correspondence  told,  in  language  not  to  be  misunder- 
stood, the  first  main  course  urged  and  subsequently  sus- 
tained by  the  present  Secretary  of  State.  Mr.  Ham- 
lin  would  trace  the  course  of  this  correspondence.  Ho 


324       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES  OP   HANNIBAL   HAMLIN. 

need  not  read  it,  for  it  must  be  familiar  to  the  minds  of 
gentlemen.  Having  begun,  in  consequence  of  allegations 
contained  in  a  private  letter,  we  had  next  the  same  argu- 
ment of  Mr.  Calhoun,  asking  for  the  action  of  Congress 
iu  the  annexation  of  Texas.  And  for  what?  Because 
he  greatly  feared  lest  slavery  should  be  abolished  in 
Texas. 

Mr.  Hamlin  would  invite  the  attention  of  gentlemen 
especially  to  a  labored  article  of  the  Secretary,  and  let 
them  say  whether  its  whole  aim  was  not  to  justify, 
uphold,  and  defend  slavery  as  right  in  principle,  and 
whether  he  did  not  demand  Texas  for  the  avowed  pur- 
pose of  extending,  strengthening,  and  perpetuating  it. 
Was  that  a  national  aspect  of  this  great  question  ?  Was 
it  not  stooping  down  from  a  high-sounding  prologue  to 
a  most  contemptible  farce? 

They  had  been  told  that  the  Government  was  alarmed 
from  an  apprehended  interference  by  foreign  Governments 
in  this  matter,  and  here  Mr.  Hamlin  was  happy  to  agree 
with  gentlemen  on  all  sides  of  the  House.  He  would  ask 
no  power  on  the  habitable  globe  to  say  what  this  republic 
might  or  ought  to  do.  She  was  her  own  judge,  and  her 
own  adviser,  yielding  to  the  dictates  of  no  power  on 
earth.  He  trusted  that  that  would  be  her  course  in 
regard  to  the  national  honor  and  the  national  dignity 
at  home.  He  entertained  no  doubt  that  it  would  be. 

Next  came  the  official  correspondence  of  the  State 
Department,  and  the  instructions  prepared  for  our  min- 
ister to  France.  The  language  of  those  instructions  was 
so  very  apposite  to  sustain  the  position  Mr.  Hamlin  had 
taken  that  he  would  beg  the  attention  of  the  Committee 
while  he  read  a  few  extracts. 

The  letter  was  a  labored  defense  of  slavery,  and  the 
alleged  design  of  the  British  Government  to  abolish 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN.        325 

slavery  in  Texas  is  seized  upon  to  aid  in  favor  of  an- 
nexation. This  was  what  he  said  : 

"  But,  to  descend  to  particulars  :  it  is  certain  that 
while  England,  like  France,  desires  the  independence  of 
Texas,  with  the  view  to  commercial  connections,  it  is  not 
less  so  that  one  of  the  leading  motives  of  England  for 
desiring  it,  is  the  hope  that,  through  her  diplomacy  and 
influence,  negro  slavery  may  be  abolished  there,  and  ulti- 
mately by  consequence  in  the  United  States,  and  through- 
out the  whole  of  this  continent.  That  its  ultimate  abo- 
lition throughout  the  entire  continent  is  an  object  ardently 
desired  by  her,  we  have  decisive  proof  in  the  declaration 
of  the  Earl  of  Aberdeen,  delivered  to  this  department, 
and  of  which  you  will  find  a  copy  among  the  documents 
transmitted  to  Congress  with  the  Texan  treaty.  That 
she  desires  its  abolition  in  Texas,  and  has  used  her  influ- 
ence and  diplomacy  to  effect  it  there,  the  same  document, 
with  the  correspondence  of  this  department  with  Mr. 
Packenham,  also  to  be  found  among  the  documents,  fur- 
nishes proof  not  less  conclusive.  That  one  of  the  objects 
of  abolishing  it  there,  is  to  facilitate  its  abolition  in  the 
United  States,  and  throughout  the  continent,  is  manifest 
from  the  declaration  of  the  abolition  party  and  societies, 
both  in  this  country  and  in  England.  In  fact,  there  is 
good  reason  to  believe  that  the  scheme  of  abolishing  ifc 
in  Texas,  with  the  view  to  its  abolition  in  the  United 
States,  and  over  the  continent,  originated  with  the  prom- 
inent members  of  the  party  in  the  United  States,  and  was 
first  broached  by  them  in  the  (so-called)  World's  Con- 
vention, held  in  London  in  the  year  1840,  and  through 
its  agency  brought  to  the  notice  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment." 

Then  follows  the  argument  of  the  Secretary  to  show 
why  England  designs  to  aid  in  the  abolition  of  slavery 


326       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF    HANNIBAL    HAMLIN. 

in  Texas,  that  she  can  better  control  the  monopoly  of  the 
tropical  productions.  The  whole  scope  of  the  argument 
tended  to  prove  or  assert  that  abolition  in  Texas  should 
not  be  permitted  by  our  Government.  His  conclusion, 
then,  must  be  that  it  must  be  annexed  for  that  cause. 
So  he  understood  it. 

"  It  is  unquestionable  that  she  regards  the  abolition 
of  slavery  in  Texas  as  a  most  important  step  toward  this 
great  object  of  policy,  so  much  the  aim  of  her  solicitude 
and  exertions;  and  the  defeat  of  the  annexation  of  Texas 
to  our  Union  as  indispensable  to  the  abolition  of  slavery 
there.  She  is  too  sagacious  not  to  see  what  a  fatal  blow 
it  would  give  to  slavery  in  the  United  States,  and  how 
certainly  its  abolition  with  us  would  abolish  it  over  the 
whole  continent,  and  thereby  give  her  a  monopoly  in  the 
productions  of  the  great  tropical  staples,  and  the  com- 
mand of  the  commerce,  navigation,  and  manufactures  of 
the  world,  with  an  established  naval  ascendency  and  po- 
litical preponderance.  To  this  continent  the  blow  would 
be  calamitous  beyond  description.  It  would  destroy,  in 
a  great  measure,  the  cultivation  and  production  of  the 
great  tropical  staples,  amounting  annually  in  value  to 
nearly  $300,000,000— the  fund  which  stimulates  and 
upholds  almost  every  other  branch  of  its  industry,  com- 
merce, navigation,  and  manufactures.  The  whole,  by 
their  joint  influence,  are  rapidly  spreading  population, 
wealth,  improvement,  and  civilization  over  the  whole 
continent,  and  vivifying,  by  their  overflow,  the  industry 
of  Europe  ;  thereby  increasing  its  population,  wealth, 
and  advance  in  the  arts,  in  power,  and  in  civilization." 

What !  was  it  true  that  the  slave  institution,  in  this 
country,  was  the  great  upholder  of  the  power  of  this  re- 
public, and  the  great  means  of  spreading  civilization  over 
the  world?  Was  it  on  such  a  correspondence,  and  on  such 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   HANNIBAL   HAMLIN.       327 

doctrines  that  gentlemen  of  that  House  were  solicited  to 
vote  in  the  affirmative,  and  to  consummate  this  union 
between  Texas  and  the  United  States  ?  When  this  cor- 
respondence was  given  to  the  world,  and  they  should 
return  home,  and  tell  their  constituents  that  they  had 
voted  for  annexation,  on  such  principles,  and  with  such 
an  aim,  would  they  not  be  pronounced  recreant  to  their 
duty,  and  traitors  to  their  country? 

Mr.  Hamlin  denied  this  reasoning,  and  the  conclusion. 
If  Government  were  thus  bound  to  extend  its  dominion 
for  such  a  purpose,  it  made  what  was  entirely  a  domestic 
affair,  one  of  a  national  character.  The  General  Gov- 
ernment had  no  right  to  interfere  in  it.  If  it  could 
extend  for  a  supposed  beneficial  purpose,  it  could  restrict, 
if  it  believed  it  would  produce  the  same  or  a  beneficial 
effect.  It  was  an  attempt  to  make  a  national  question 
out  of  what  related  solely  to  the  states  ;  and  those  who 
assumed  to  give  it  that  character,  would  be  swift  indeed 
to  prevent  the  action  of  Congress  in  another  and  differ- 
ent direction.  The  question  of  annexation  was  fully  and 
clearly  national,  not  one  where  Government  should  act 
for  a  cause  over  which  he  had  no  right  to  interfere. 

But  the  matter  stopped  not  here.  What  had  been 
said  by  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Foreign  Af- 
fairs, (Mr.  C.  J.  Ingersoll,)  when  he  had  first  presented 
this  subject  for  the  action  of  Congress.  Mr.  Hamlin 
would  beg  leave  to  read  some  sentences  of  the  gen- 
tleman's speech,  as  it  had  been  given  in  the  report  of 
the  Intelligencer,  word  for  word,  and  letter  for  letter. 

He  had  suggested  this  plan  of  carrying  out  the  treaty 
as  well  in  committee  as  in  the  House,  for  these  reasons: 
1st.  The  measure  was  a  bargain ;  it  was  an  arrangement 
made  with  another  nation,  and  the  plan  had  been  ma- 
tured by  respectable  agents  attending  here  on  the  part 


328       LIFE    AND   SPEECHES   OP   HANNIBAL   HAMLIN. 

of  the  government  of  Texas,  and  empowered  by  it  ad 
hoc;  he  therefore  took  it  for  granted  that  this  plan  was 
the  most  acceptable  to  that  government,  and  he  there- 
fore gave  it  the  preference.  He  went  a  step  further: 
this  was  not  only  a  Texas  question  ;  it  was,  moreover,  a 
Southern  question  ;  and,  as  he  meant  to  speak  here  with 
all  the  freedom  and  frankness  which  he  supposed  to  be- 
come a  gentleman,  he  would  say  that  as  a  Southern  ques- 
tion he  considered  it,  and  was  ready  to  defer  to  South- 
ern sentiment  in  regard  to  it.  And  was  not  this  fair? 
When  the  question  of  the  Northeastern  boundary  was 
agitated  in  Congress,  had  it  not  finally  been  settled  by 
the  expressed  wishes  of  the  two  States  immediately  in- 
terested, viz.,  Massachusetts  and  Maine.  The  other  States 
acquiesced.  The  measure  could  not  have  commanded  a 
majority  in  the  Senate,  if  all  the  Senators  had  been  gov- 
erned by  their  own  particular  wishes  and  views  in  regard  to 
it;  but  they  considered  that  if  Massachusetts  and  Maine 
were  satisfied  with  the  arrangement,  they  ought  not  to 
resist  it.  So,  in  the  present  case,  Mr.  Ingersoll  consid- 
ered this,  as  he  had  said,  not  only  as  a  Texas  question, 
but  as  a  Southern  question,  as  a  boundary  question,  and 
as  a  slavery  question.  He  should  speak  without  reserve. 
If  that  portion  of  the  people  of  the  Union  whose  exist- 
ence depended  on  the  existence  of  slavery,  and  who  were 
the  most  deeply  and  immediately  interested  in  this  Texas 
question,  preferred  the  treaty  plan,  Mr.  Ingersoll  was 
prepared  to  acquiesce.  He  admitted,  indeed,  that  it  was 
a  national  question  ;  but  so  was  our  Maine  boundary  a  na- 
tional question  ;  and  there  was  such  a  thing  as  conform- 
ing a  national  question  to  local  views.  The  former 
Secretary  of  State,  a  man  of  most  honorable,  lofty,  and 
patriotic  sentiments,  (he  referred  to  the  late  lamented 
Mr,  Secretary  Upshur,)  who  had  originated  this  treaty, 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN,        329 

and  his  successor,  another  Southern  gentleman,  who  car- 
ried it  into  effect,  had  been  actuated,  no  doubt,  by  such 
Southern  sentiments  as  they  in  the  North  were  not  ex- 
actly prepared  to  appreciate;  but  JVIr.  Ingersoll  should 
not,  therefore,  reject  the  measure. 

Who,  then,  has  made  this  question  subservient  to  a 
particular  object?  Those  who  had  done  so,  certainly 
could  not  complain  of  others  who  would  consult  the 
wishes  and  opinions  of  all  sections,  and  acquire  it  in 
such  a  way  as  would  permit  those  who  disagree  on  cer- 
tain questions,  to  occupy  it  in  portions  as  each  should 
prefer.  They  could  not  with  Banquo  say: 

"Nay,  shake  not  thy  gory  locks  at,  me! 
Thou  canst  not  say  I  did  it." 

To  all  these  doctrines  Mr.  Hamlin  entered  his  earnest, 
solemn  protest.  They  were  monstrous,  and  not  for  a 
moment  to  be  entertained. 

Here  was  the  history  of  this  measure  as  presented  in 
our  official  correspondence,  and  as  traced  to  the  House. 
It  was  conceded  that  the  treaty  reported  from  the  Com- 
mittee on  Foreign  Affairs,  was  prepared  by  Mr.  Upshur, 
as  a  "Southern  measure."  The  doctrines  laid  down  by 
the  gentleman  of  Pennsylvania,  (Mr.  Ingersoll,)  could 
not  be  admitted.  If  another  republic  was  to  come  in 
this  Union,  it  were  right  and  just  that  all  sections,  in 
their  views  and  sentiments,  should  be  consulted,  and  the 
admission  made  in  accordance  to  all,  as  near  as  possible. 
One  section  should  be  equally  consulted  and  regarded 
in  its  interests  and  feelings  with  another.  It  was  to 
these  views  to  which  he  had  referred,  that  Mr.  Hamlin 
objected,  and  all  he  desired  was  to  so  place  the  matter 
before  the  country,  as  not  to  sanction  or  approve  them. 
How  was  the  responsibility  of  indorsing  these  opinions 
28 


330        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  HANNIBAL  HAMLTtf; 

to  be  avoided,  if  the  measure  were  consummated  in  such 
a  way  as  to  secure  the  object  named,  he  could  not  see. 
Gentlemen  did  not,  he  was  sure,  design  to  annex  Texas 
for  such  a  purpose  ;  and  it  was  proper  to  be  careful  that 
their  acts  should  not  effect  what  they  did  not  intend. 

He  could  refer  to  other  authorities  elsewhere,  placing 
the  question,  and  urging  its  adoption  on  the  same  prin- 
ciples. He  could  cite  the  language  used  by  honorable 
gentlemen  upon  that  floor,  but  it  was  his  design  mainly 
to  examine  the  false  attitudes  in  which  it  had  presented 
itself  in  the  official  correspondence,  and  how  it  had  been 
introduced  into  the  House.  All  he  desired  was  to  put 
the  measure  upon  that  position  which  would  disconnect 
it  from  the  basis  upon  which  it  had  been  falsely  placed. 
Instead  of  carrying  it  out  and  consummating  the  act  in 
that  way,  it  should  be  upon  grounds  which  would  give 
all  the  states  the  territory  in  such  a  manner  as  would 
accommodate  the  whites  and  institutions  of  different  sec- 
tions. He  would  vote  for  either  proposition  thus  guard- 
ed and  just. 

How  was  the  question  directly  before  the  House  : 

First.  Was  the  treaty  from  the  Committee  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  which  had  been  rejected  by  the  Senate,  article 
for  article,  word  for  word,  and  letter  for  letter. 

Second.  The  resolution,  which  was  a  literal  copy  of  the 
treaty,  and  as  an  amendment  to  that  was  the  resolution 
of  the  gentleman  from  Ohio,  (Mr.  Weller,)  and  as  an 
amendment  to  the  amendment  was  the  proposition  of  the 
gentleman  from  Illinois,  (Mr.  Douglas.) 

Would  not  the  adoption  of  either  of  these  secure  all 
that  has  been  desired  by  those  who  have  put  it  on  the 
ground  of  a  sectional  character.  The  question  upon 
either  of  the  amendments,  as  he  fully  understood  it, 
would  be  admitting  the  territory  and  securing  slave  in- 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL    HAMLIN.         331 

stitutions  in  it  all,  or  very  nearly  all.  He  could  see  no 
other  conclusion  which  could  be  drawn. 

It  was  very  true  that  the  amendment  of  the  gentleman 
from  Illinois,  (Mr.  Douglas,)  excluded  it  from  north  of 
thirty-six  degrees  thirty  minutes  north  latitude.  It  was 
said  by  many  that  no  part  of  Texas  lay  north  of  that  line, 
and  according  to  the  map  it  was  a  small  strip  not  suscep- 
tible of  forming  even  one  state.  The  rest  of  Texas  has 
slavery  guaranteed  to  it  by  its  Constitution,  and  intelli- 
gent gentlemen  frankly  admitted  that  it  would  demand 
an  admission  as  a  state,  with  the  same  institutions  upon 
an  implied  guarantee. 

Some  gentlemen  had  said  to  the  opponents  of  the 
measure  on  the  ground  of  slavery:  "Let  the  abstract, 
question  first  be  settled,  and  let  the  rest  remain  an  open 
question,  and  we  can  arrange  the  details  afterward."  Mr. 
Hamlin  had  been  and  now  was  willing  to  go  for  that;  he 
would  cheerfully  vote  to  settle  the  abstract  question  first 
without  including  any  details,  if  they  would  only  leave 
all  else  open  and  settle  the  details  afterward.  But  how 
stood  the  matter  in  fact?  Mr.  Hamlin  should  be  very 
glad  to  find  that  they  had  not  been  mistaken.  "Would 
they  let  the  question  of  slavery  remain  an  open  question  ? 
He  feared  not.  The  moment  that  was  insisted  on,  they 
opposed  it  with,  all  their  power.  He  asked  gentlemen  to 
answer  him  this  question  directly  and  plainly  :  If  Texas 
should  be  admitted  without  the  exclusion  of  slavery, 
would  they  not  afterward  say  that  those  who  had  voted 
for  the  abstract  question  stood  pledged  to  the  whole  ter- 
ritory, as  it  was  when  admitted?  And  would  they  not 
be  reproached  with  a  violation  of  faith,  should  they  after- 
ward insist  on  the  exclusion  of  slavery  from  any  portion 
of  the  territory?  Would  it  not  be  said  that  they  had 
bound  themselves  by  every  sacred  tie  that  could  bind  a 


332        LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OP    HANNIBAL   HAMLIN. 

man  ?  And  would  they  not  be  taunted  with  more  sever- 
ity than  they  ever  had  been  before  should  they  then  re- 
fuse to  the  South  all  it  should  demand  ? 

If  gentlemen  really  meant  what  they  said  verbally,  let 
them  employ  language  in  the  resolution  which  pledged 
them  to  that  effect,  and  Mr.  Hamlin  was  prepared  to  go 
for  the  measure.  He  honestly  avowed  what  he  intended. 
He  stated  his  position  without  reserve,  and  he  was  ready 
to  march  up  to  his  duty,  corne  what  might. 

They  had  been  told  on  all  sides  that  this  Texas  ques- 
tion had  been  settled  by  the  people  in  the  recent  Presi- 
dential election.  To  the  decisions  of  his  countrymen 
Mr.  Hamlin  was  prepared  ever  to  bow.  because  his  doc- 
trine was  that  the  people  of  a  nation,  the  great  mass  of 
the  common  intelligence,  was  always  right:  he  did  not 
mean  to  intimate  that  the  public  mind  could  never  be  de- 
ceived, but  he  did  most  firmly  believe  that  the  motives  and 
impulses  of  the  people,  taken  as  a  body,  were  always  right, 
and  therefore  he  was  ready  to  bow  to  their  opinion  when- 
ever expressed.  And  was  the  great  majority  of  the  Amer- 
ican people  in  favor  of  annexation?  He  believed  they 
were,  and  so  was  he  decidedly;  but  that  that  majority 
had  prescribed  the  manner  of  the  annexation,  and  the 
details  of  the  measure,  he  no  more  believed  than  he  did 
that  there  had  been  no  election  at  all.  How  had  the 
question  been  presented  to  the  people  ?  In  one  section 
of  the  country  it  had  been  presented  in  one  way,  and 
in  another  section  in  another;  in  one  portion  of  the 
Union  the  details  had  been  omitted,  and  in  others  per- 
haps they  might  have  been  avowed.  For  himself,  his  col- 
leagues would  all  testify  with  what  industry  and  zeal  he 
had  labored  in  behalf  of  the  Democratic  party  in  the  late 
election.  His  colleagues,  too,  know  that  Mr.  Hamlin's 
exertions  had  not  been  limited  by  his  own  district,  but 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN.         333 

had  been  extended  through  various  parts  of  the  state. 
He  had  met  his  own  constituents  face  to  face,  and  he 
knew  how  he  presented  it  to  them.  And  now  he  asked 
how  this  Texas  question  had  been  presented  to  the  people 
of  the  North?  Had  they  not  been  told  that  our  gov- 
ernment throughout  was  essentially  a  government  of 
compromises?  and  that  this  question,  like  all  others, 
was  to  be  settled  on  fair  principles  of  compromise?  And 
were  they  not  told  that  the  arrangement  would,  in  the 
end,  admit  more  free  than  slave  states  into  the  Union? 
Undeniably  they  were.  All  the  Democratic  papers  in 
New  England  which  advocated  the  measure,  that  he  saw, 
had  placed  it  on  that  ground.  There  might  be  here  and 
there  a  rare  exception,  but  in  general  they  quoted  the 
language  of  Mr.  Clay.  They  were  honest  in  taking  this 
position,  and  backed  up  this  opinion  by  evidence  drawn 
from  the  lips  of  the  opponents  of  the  measure.  Mr. 
Hamlin  had  said  to  thousands  of  his  constituents  the 
same,  and  now  demanded  that  gentlemen  who  had  thus 
presented  the  measure  should  follow  it  out  on  the  same 
ground.  He  now  asked  no  more.  What  did  the  resolu- 
tions from  the  New  Hampshire  Legislature  declare? 
and  on  what  basis  did  they  .rest?  Had  it  not  been  that 
more  free  states  than  slave  states  would  be  admitted,  it 
would  be  a  quibble  to  say  that  the  reference  was  to  states 
not  found  out  of  that  territory  ;  the  reference  was  ob- 
viously to  Texas  and  to  Texas  alone.  Let  the  resolution 
speak  for  itself: 

"  Resolved,  That  we  believe  with  Mr.  Clay,  '  that  the  reannexa- 
tion  of  Texas  will  add  more  free  than  slave  states  to  the  Union, 
and  that  it  would  be  unwise  to  refuse  a  permanent  acquisition, 
which  will  exist  as  long  as  the  globe  remains,  on  account  of  a 
temporary  institution.'" 


334       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OP   HANNIBAL   HAMLIN. 

If  he  was  not  mistaken  this  was  nearly  the  language 
used  by  Mr.  Clay  in  one  of  his  letters,  when  he  spoke  of 
the  territory  as  being  so  situated,  that  it  would  or  could 
make  more  free  than  slave  states.  Such,  certainly,  was 
his  expressed  opinion  and  argument. 

And  now,  what  did  they  ask  ?  What  was  the  request 
of  a  portion  of  the  decided  friends  of  annexation  ?  It 
was  no  more  nor  less  than  this,  that  gentlemen  would 
meet  them  on  the  ground  of  mutual  concession,  and 
would  take  Texas  in  such  a  manner  as  to  comply  with 
Northern  principles  and  sentiments,  as  well  as  with 
Southern  feelings  and  interests.  Was  this  asking  too 
much?  But  Mr.  Ilamlin  would  go  further.  A  propo- 
sition had  been  made  in  the  other  end  of  the  Capitol,  and 
that,  too,  by  a  Southern  senator,  (Mr.  Hayward,)  which 
spoke  volumes  for  his  heart  as  a  man,  and  still  more 
for  his  head  as  a  statesman.  Mr.  Hamlin  would  strike 
out  that  provision  in  the  joint  resolution  which  required 
the  action  of  the  treaty  power,  as  he  deemed  that  un- 
necessary, and  might  endanger  the  measure.  Here  was 
a  fair  compromise,  giving  an  equal  number  of  free  and 
slave  states,  and  for  it  would  gladly  vote.  Mr.  Hamlin 
had  no  disposition  to  discuss  either  the  merits  or  de- 
merits of  slavery ;  the  eloquent  Pinckney  had  done 
this  far  better  than  Mr.  Hamlin  could  do.  They  were 
Southern  lips  which  had  in  substance  said  of  slavery, 
"  that  the  green  earth  of  God  was  scorched  wherever  its 
footsteps  were  seen."  They  had  declared  that  slavery 
was  marked  by  the  curse  both  of  God  and  man.  For 
himself  Mr.  Hamlin  took  it  as  but  one  of  many  evils 
inflicted  upon  us  in  our  colonial  state  by  the  British 
government.  He  left  it  to  time  and  to  God  to  control, 
to  limit,  or  to  abolish  it  as  he  deemed  best.  And  now 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   HANNIBAL   HAMLIN.       335 

he  would  ask  of  the  South  -whether  they  could  say  that 
their  Northern  friends  asked  more  than  they  were  will- 
ing to  concede  ?  Were  they  not  willing  to  settle  this 
matter  on  the  principles  of  compromise  ?  He  was, 
because  he  believed  that  Northern  as  well  as  Southern 
interests,  that  the  commerce,  the  agriculture,  and  espe- 
cially the  manufactures  of  the  North,  together  with  the 
industry  of  the  country  generally,  would  all  be  benefited 
by  the  proposed  union.  At  the  same  time  he  believed 
this  would  prove  a  great  benefit  to  the  South,  by  giving 
them  possession  of  a  country  eminently  adapted  to  the 
production  of  our  great  staple  commodities,  more  espe- 
cially of  cotton,  of  which  they  could  enjoy  a  monopoly. 
These  Mr.  Hamlin  considered  as  great  national  views, 
all  going  to  justify  the  scheme  of  annexation.  As  for 
the  military  argument,  he  did  not  look  upon  that  as 
worth  a  great  deal.  He  regarded  the  mutual  benefits 
which  would  result  alike  to  the  whole  Union. 

But  then  the  North  requested  that  if  they  aided  their 
Southern  brethren  in  making  this  acquisition  they  should 
themselves  participate  in  it.  Let  them  have  an  equal 
portion  of  the  territory  which  they  might  populate  and 
improve  with  the  vigorous  sinews  and  the  strong  arms 
of  freemen. 

A  portion  of  the  advocates  of  this  measure  contended 
that  this  was  a  national  question,  but  there  were  others 
who  had  treated  it  as  sectional,  who  did  not  cease  to  say 
that  it  was  a  Southern  question  and  must  be  controlled 
by  the  South  alone.  Mr.  Hamlin  viewed  it  as  a  national 
question.  He  advocated  it  as  such  alone ;  and  that  it  might 
be  so,  the  North  requested  and  expected  that  a  fair  propor- 
tion of  Texan  territory  should  be  exempted  from  slavery, 
BO  that  their  emigrants  might  be  enabled  to  go  there  and 
share  in  the  benefits  of  the  new  acquisition.  Wherever 


336       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF    HANNIBAL    HAMLIN. 

they  had  heretofore  gone,  they  had  subdued  the  forests 
and  turned  the  unbroken  wilderness  into  fruitful  fields. 
If  they  became  disgusted  with  the  benefits  and  results 
of  free  labor,  let  them  be  left  at  liberty  to  exchange  it 
for  the  labor  of  slaves  if  they  could.  Mr.  Hamlin  be- 
lieved he  hazarded  nothing  in  saying  that  the  day  was 
far  distant  when  any  community  that  had  made  the  ex- 
periment, and  seen  the  effects  of  free  labor  on  their 
prosperity,  could  ever  be  induced  to  introduce  and  estab- 
lish slavery  in  its  place.  It  could  never  be  done. 

Once  more,  he  said,  Let  this  question  be  settled  now ; 
let  it  be  known,  at  once,  whether  any  part  of  the  Terri- 
tory of  Texas  was  to  be  resigned  to  slave-labor  alone. 
If  there  was  to  be  a  partition  line,  let  it  be  designated  at 
once,  so  that  settlers  from  the  North  might  know  where 
to  go;  and  let  it  be  a  just  line.  It  is  admitted  that  a 
portion  of  the  territory  is  adapted  to  free  labor.  That, 
too,  is  the  part  yet  unsettled,  and  may  be  converted  into 
free  states  without  affecting  the  rights  of  persons  now 
in  Texas.  An  equal  or  fair  division  can  be  made,  and 
not  molest  or  disturb  what  may  be  secured  to  the  citizens 
of  that  republic.  Why  are  not  they  willing  to  do  what 
is  admitted  to  be  in  accordance  with  the  character  of  the 
country ;  and  let  the  citizens  of  one  section  of  our 
Union  enjoy  the  benefits  of  a  part  of  the  territory 
without  coming  in  conflict  with  an  institution  which  they 
neither  desire  nor  would  be  connected  with. 

He  would  ask  the  attention  of  gentlemen  to  two 
points :  If  it  was  insisted  on  that  he  was  under  a 
wrong  impression  on  this  question,  how  easy  was  it  to 
bring  that  question  to  a  test,  by  meeting  their  friends 
on  fair  and  equal  terms;  if  gentlemen  said  that  terms 
and  details  should  remain  an  open  question,  then  let 
them  insert  an  "  exclusion  to  a  conclusion,"  and  he 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN.       337 

would  say  at  once,  Let  Texas  come  in.  Let  the  North 
be  but  fairly  met,  and  he  would  vote  for  her  admission 
with  cheerfulness. 

But  there  was  another  matter  connected  with  this 
question  which  Mr.  llamlin  had  designed  to  examine. 
He  referred  to  the  jeers  and  the  taunts  which  had  been 
thrown  out,  in  the  course  of  this  debate,  upon  the  North. 
When  he  first  heard  language  of  this  kind,  the  natural 
impulse  of  his  heart  rose  instantly,  prompting  him  to 
hurl  back  all  such  reproaches,  and  meet  them  in  the  same 
spirit  in  which  they  came  ;  but  reflection  had  chastened 
him  on  that  subject ;  Southern  gentlemen  should  not 
provoke  a  retort  from  him.  This  was  a  question  which 
it  did  not  become  a  statesman  to  narrow  down  into  an 
angry  contest  of  mutual  recrimination.  No!  he  should 
pass  by  the  taunts  and  the  jeers  by  which  it  would  seem 
that  gentlemen  sought  to  provoke  even  their  Northern 
allies,  as  he  would  the  idle  wind;  and,  if  it  was  any  con- 
solation to  gentlemen  to  discuss  a  great  national  question 
in  that  spirit,  he  had  no  reproaches  to  cast  upon  them. 
No  !  he  remembered  the  history  of  the  South  too  well ; 
he  did  not  choose  to  forget  that,  in  other  days,  the  South 
had  stood  by  the  North,  shoulder  to  shoulder,  and  had 
shed  her  gushing  blood,  like  rain-drops,  in  many  a  hard- 
fought  field.  The  sands  of  many  a  battle-plain  had  bec'n 
fertilized  by  her  best  blood;  and  if  her  sons  did  now  for- 
get the  feelings  and  the  principles  of  their  fathers,  if  that 
devoted  patriotism  and  broad  and  general  love  of  coun- 
try, which  led  them  into  every  pass  of  danger,  and 
sustained  them  under  every  trying  privation,  had  for- 
saken the  bosom  of  their  sons,  he  could  only  contemplate 
such  a  spectacle  with  a  sigh.  If  the  North  had  acted 
wickedly,  he  offered  for  her  no  apology — that  wicked- 
ness was  not  the  crime  of  her  people;  it  belonged  to  her 
29 


338        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN. 

politicians  alone.  Mr.  Hamlin  bad  neither  reproaches  to 
cast  nor  defense  to  offer,  for  the  folly  or  wickedness 
which,  at  times,  had  been  committed  by  political  men. 
Sure  he  was  that  the  hardy  sons  of  the  ice-bound  region 
of  New  England  had  poured  out  their  blood  without 
stint,  to  protect  the  homes  of  the  South,  and  to  avenge 
her  wrongs  ;  their  bones  were  even  now  bleaching  beneath 
the  sun  on  many  a  Southern  hill,  and  the  monuments  of 
their  brave  devotion  might  still  be  traced  wherever  their 
country's  flag  had  floated  in  the  battle-field,  or  on  the 
breeze,  upon  the  lakes,  the  ocean,  and  the  land. 

"New  England's  dead — New  England's  dead, 

On  every  field  they  lie; 
On  every  field  made  red 
With  bloody  victory. 

"  Their  bones  are  on  our  Northern  hills, 

And  on  the  Southern  plain, 
By  brook  and  river,  mount  and  rills, 
And  in  the  sounding  main." 

"I  glory,"  cried  Mr.  Hamlin,  "in  New  England  and 
New  England's  institutions.  There  she  stands,  with  her 
free  schools  and  her  free  labor,  her  fearless  enterprise,  her 
indomitable  energy.  \Vith  her  rocky  hills,  her  torrent 
streams,  her  green  valleys,  her  heavenward  pointed  spires ; 
there  she  stands,  a  moral  monument,  around  which  the 
gratitude  of  her  country  binds  the  wreath  of  fame,  while 
protected  freedom  shall  repose  forever  at  its  base. 

"  I  meet  not  my  Southern  brethren  with  the  brand  of 
discord,  but  with  the  olive-branch  of  peace.  I  meet  them 
in  the  spirit  of  harmony ;  I  desire  to  meet  them  on  even 
ground — on  ground  alike  respectful  to  the  North  and  to 
the  South,  and  I  invoke  them  to  perform  this  great  na- 
tional act  in  such  a  manner  that  Southern  and  Northern 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   HANNIBAL   HAMLIN.       339 

hands  may  unite  in  raising  the  stars  and  stripes  of  our 
beloved  Union  ;  and  that  Southern  and  Northern  hearts 
may  rejoice  together  to  behold  them  floating  forever  over 
the  rich  and  fertile  Texan  plains.  I  ask,  will  not  gentle- 
men meet  us  here?  Will  they  not  rescue  this  measure 
alike  from  danger  and  reproach,  and  put  it  in  a  shape  to 
gratify  us  all  ?  I  entreat  them  to  look  at  the  question 
in  all  the  lights  of  cool  reflection,  before  they  finally  re- 
ject a  compromise  which,  while  it  secures  them  an  ines- 
timable benefit,  does  equal  justice  to  all  sections  and  all 
interests  of  the  Union." 

On  the  14th  of  January,  1847,  the  question  arising  on 
the  bill  to  establish  the  territorial  government  of  Ore- 
gon, Mr.  Hamlin  made  the  speech  in  the  House  before 
referred  to,  in  which,  among  other  things,  he  said: 

"  Before  proceeding  to  an  examination  of  the  matters 
which  I  propose  to  discuss,  I  invoke  the  attention  of  this 
House  to  the  manner  in  which  this  debate  has  been 
conducted  upon  the  other  side.  Had  a  stranger  within 
these  walls  listened  to  the  discussion,  he  would  readily 
have  supposed  that  we  of  the  free  states  were  waging  an 
unholy  crusade  against  the  Southern  population  of  this 
confederacy;  that  we  were  laying  unholy  and  polluted 
hands  upon  the  sacred  rights  guaranteed  by  the  Consti- 
tution to  the  Southern  states  ;  that  we  were  disregarding 
their  sacred  rights,  and  almost  trampling  upon  their  do- 
mestic altars.  Sir,  is  this  so?  I  have  not  yet  listened 
to  the  first  man  who  has  addressed  this  House,  upon  this 
side,  who  would  trample  upon,  or  trifle  with,  a  solitary 
right  of  any  one  of  the  states  of  this  Union.  On  the 
other  hand,  there  has  been  but  one  spontaneous  and  uni- 
form declaration  that  we  will  stand  by  them  in  weal  and 
in  woe. 

"In  the  discussion  of  this  matter,  then,  gentlemen  are 


340        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN. 

not  to  escape  on  these  collateral  issues.  They  are  not 
to  raise  the  smoke  of  their  own  creating,  and  vanish  be- 
hind it.  No  man  proposes  to  disturb  a  single  right  guar- 
anteed by  the  Constitution  to  any  one  of  the  states. 
On  the  other  hand,  we  pledge  ourselves,  here  and  here- 
after, that  we  will  stand  by  them  as  one  common  broth- 
erhood, engaged  in  one  common  cause.  No,  sir;  we 
design  no  such  thing ;  we  counsel  no  such  thing,  and 
we  will  not  concur  in  any  such  thing.  As  members  of 
this  great  confederacy,  however,  we  do  ask  and  demand 
that  in  all  things  submitted  to  our  deliberation,  we  shall 
have  the  right  to  speak,  and  speak  with  manly  boldness 
and  firmness,  to  defend  and  maintain  the  rights  of  the 
constituents  we  represent  on  this  floor.  We  ask  no  more, 
we  will  take  no  less." 

Further  on  he  says:  "The  question  submitted  to  us — 
and  it  is  a  question  not  to  be  winked  out  of  sight — is, 
are  we  to  acquire  other  and  foreign  territory,  either  for 
the  purpose  or  with  the  consent  of  the  people  of  this 
Union,  that  it  may  be  converted  into  slave  territory  ? 
Never,  sir ;  never,  to  the  end  of  time,  with  my  aid  and 
with  my  assistance,  shall  that  acquisition  take  place. 
While  I  desire  to  see  the  union  of  California  to  these 
States,  it  must  come  /ree,  or  not  at  all.  And  now,  I  say, 
with  the  gentlemen  from  South  Carolina,  (Messrs.  Burt 
and  Rhett,)  now  is  the  time  when  we  are  to  meet  this 
question  fairly,  and  talk  openly  and  boldly  to  each  other, 
that  there  may  be  no  misunderstanding  between  us  here- 
after. Gentlemen  have  perfectly  understood,  if  nothing 
were  said  or  done  now,  slavery  would  be  sure  to  advance 
and  run  over  the  territories  which  we  might  acquire 
There  could  be  no  mistake  about  that  fact.  Suffer  this 
time  to  go  by,  and  give  the  acquiescence  of  silence,  and 
the  conclusion  was  foregone.  A  silent  acquiescence  is 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN.        341 

equal  to  an  affirmative  vote  in  favor  of  slavery ;  and  to 
avoid  the  issue  now  is  equally  responsible.  And  while 
we  vote  with  cheerfulness  for  all  supplies,  men  and 
money,  to  prosecute  the  war  with  the  utmost  vigor,  and 
while  all  should  rally  for  the  country  in  this  crisis ; 
while  there  should  be  no  holding  back,  at  the  same 
time,  we  are  bound  to  declare  that  we  will  not  permit 
the  institution  of  slavery  to  exist  in  any  territory  which 
may  result  as  an  incident  of  the  war." 

After  speaking  of  the  failure  to  secure  the  rights  of 
free  labor  in  the  acquisition  of  Texas,  he  says: 

"  But,  sir,  I  discard,  at  once  and  forever,  all  talk  about 
a  compromise,  on  any  parallel  of  latitude  which  can  be 
named  by  man.  To  any  proposition  for  taking  territory 
now  free,  and  sending  there  the  shackles  and  manacles 
of  slavery,  I  never  will  consent;  never.  No;  cause  the 
declaration  to  be  placed  on  record  on  your  journals,  that 
it  may  be  seen  by  those  who  shall  come  after  us,  and  who 
shall  be  better  able  to  carry  out  the  doctrines  we  lay 
down.  *  *  *  I  will  go  for  no  compromise  whatever." 

Annunciating  the  proposition  which  he  would  pass 
affirmatively,  a  proposition  which  should  declare  to  the 
world  that  no  territory  now  free  shall  ever  come  into  the 
Union  as  slave  territory,  or  be  made  slave  territory,  he 
says: 

"  But,  sir,  suppose  we  fail,  suppose  we  are  not  able  to 
pass  that  declaratory  act ;  we  give  you  notice,  that  this 
is  the  ground  upon  which  we  plant  ourselves,  and  it  is 
the  ground  to  be  supported  by  other,  by  abler  and  better 
men,  who  shall  hereafter  come  here  as  representatives  of 
the  North.  At  the  North,  sir,  there  is  but  one  public 
sentiment  on  this  subject.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  by  this 
that  you  may  not  here  and  there  find  a  case  of  a  shackled 
press  muttering  its  dissent  against  the  doctrines  of  free- 


342        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN. 

men ;  that  you  may  not  here  and  there  find  a  doughface, 
with  fetters  on  his  lips,  uttering  his  faint  protest  against 
it.  But  it  is  the  doctrine  of  the  North;  it  is  the  doctrine 
she  will  march  up  to.  She  will  live  up  to  it  in  all  com- 
ing time.  And  we  give  you  notice,  that  you  may  not 
hereafter  say  we  have  taken  you  by  surprise  ;  we  give 
you  notice,  even  if  we  are  not  able  to  carry  it  out  now, 
that  we  shall  have  no  shackles  upon  us  when  we  come 
to  vote  for  the  admission  of  states  to  be  formed  out  of 
this  territory." 

In  conclusion,  Mr.  Hamlin  said: 

"A  few  more  words  and  I  have  done.  And  in  refer- 
ence to  the  stale,  worn-out  cry  of  dissolution  of  this 
Union,  the  time  was  when  even  my  nerves  were  a  little 
disturbed  by  it.  That  time  has  long  since  passed,  and 
gentlemen  of  timid,  weak  neryes  are  now  rallying  around 
the  standard,  on  the  free  side  of  the  question,  who  were 
wont  to  rally  on  the  other  side.  This  cry  of  dissolution 
of  the  Union  has  become  too  old  to  be  repeated,  or  to 
be  entitled  to  much  weight  and  confidence,  iterated  and 
reiterated  as  it  is  on  every  major  and  minor  question. 
The  Union  can  not  be  dissolved.  The  mutual  interests 
and  benefits  enjoyed  by  the  different  sections  would  not 
permit  it.  The  great  West  was  bound  to  the  South  by 
its  commerce,  and  could  not  be  separated  while  its  mighty 
rivers  rolled  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  The  Xorth  and  the 
South,  too,  were  equally  bound  by  their  commerce  and 
exchange  of  productions.  These  were  all  ligaments  that 
could  not  be  rent  or  ruptured.  The  talk  of  it  was  folly, 
as  well  as  madness.  These  great  ties  to  which  he  had 
alluded,  superadded  to  the  patriotic  devotion  of  our 
people  to  our  government,  would  render  our  Union 
impregnable  forever.  A  dissolution  of  this  great  and 
mighty  republic,  erected  by  the  wisdom  of  our  fathers, 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN.         843 

cemented  by  their  blood  !  and  for  what?  Spread  it  out, 
that  the  public  eye  may  gaze  upon  it;  proclaim  it,  that 
the  public  ear  may  hear  it;  utter  it  from  the  groaning 
press,  and  thunder  it  from  the  pulpit: — A  dissolution 
of  the  Union  because  we  will  not  extend  the  institution 
of  negro  slavery !  Sir,  the  man  who  would  utter  that 
sentiment,  should  blush  when  it  falls  from  his  lips. 
Dissolve  this  great  and  mighty  republic  for  this  miser- 
able pretext.  I  agree  with  the  gentleman  from  Indiana 
(Mr.  Petitt)  that  it  is  not  the  doctrine  of  the  great  and 
patriotic  South.  She  has  rallied — except  the  time  when 
she  was  about  to  go  to  the  death  for  sugar — she  has 
rallied  for  this  Union.  She  will  stand  by  it,  when  others 
may  desert  it;  stand  by  it  in  all  coming  time,  and  will 
regret  that  her  sons  proclaimed  it  to  the  world,  in  this 
nineteenth  century,  in  this,  the  freest  country  on  earth, 
that  we  are  to  dissolve  this  fair  fabric  for  the  miserable 
reason  that  we  will  not  extend  the  institution  which  is 
a  curse  to  all  the  states  in  which  it  exists.  *  *  * 

"In  whatever  may  be  the  action  and  course  of  North- 
ern Representatives  here,  the  great  mass  of  the  Northern 
people  have  but  one  impulse  beating  in  their  bosoms — 
to  stand  by  this  Union  through  good  and  evil  report — 
to  rally  around  the  blessed  stars  and  stripes  of  our  glo- 
rious Confederacy  wherever  they  float — to  peril  their 
lives  and  pour  out  their  blood  and  treasure,  if  need  be, 
in  its  defense;  but  to  the  institution  of  slavery  they  say, 
'Thus  far  hast  thou  gone — no  further  shalt  thou  go.'  " 

We  can  not,  in  justice  to  Mr.  Hamlin,  omit  any  por- 
tion of  the  important  speech,  before  referred  to,  made  by 
him  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  July  22d,  1848, 
on  the  bill  reported  from  the  Select  Committee  to  estab- 
lish territorial  governments  in  Oregon,  New  Mexico,  and 
California,  known  as  the  Compromise  Bill.  Mr.  Hamlin 


344        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  HANNIBAL  HAM  LIN. 

said  :  "  I  am  admonished,  Mr.  President,  by  the  whis- 
perings within  these  walls,  that  we  are  to  be  pressed  to 
a  decision  of  this  great  question  at  the  present  sitting. 
If,  therefore,  I  would  offer  any  suggestions,  which  will 
control  my  vote  and  command  my  action,  I  must  embrace 
the  present  as  the  only  opportunity. 

"  The  question  which  we  are  now  called  upon  to  de- 
cide is  of  momentous  importance.  Yet  from  its  decision 
I  have  no  disposition  to  shrink.  It  is,  indeed,  startling, 
that  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century — in  this 
model  Republic,  with  the  sun  of  liberty  shining  upon 
us,  and  while  the  governments  of  Europe  are  tottering 
to  their  base,  from  the  lights  reflected  from  our  own, 
and  while  they  are  striking  down  the  shackles  of  tyranny 
over  the  minds  of  men — we  have  been  gravely  discuss- 
ing the  proposition,  whether  we  will  not  create,  by  law, 
the  institution  of  human  slavery  in  territories  now  free. 
Such,  in  direct  terms,  has  been  the  question  which  we 
have  had  before  us ;  such  is  the  issue,  in  fact,  now. 
Sophistry  can  not  evade  it — metaphysics  can  not  escape 
it.  If  there  have  been  those  who  have  heretofore  be- 
lieved a  discussion  of  this  matter  premature,  all,  or 
nearly  all,  have  declared  a  willingness  to  meet  the  issue 
when  it  should  be  practically  presented.  That  crisis  is 
now  upon  us,  and,  as  men  faithfully  representing  the 
constituencies  who  have  sent  us  here,  we  must  meet  it. 
I  had  hoped  —  nay,  I  had  believed  —  that  there  were 
those  common  grounds  of  concession,  union,  and  har- 
mony, dictated  by  a  lofty  patriotism,  upon  which  all 
would  meet,  and  by  which  we  would  settle  this  vexed 
question.  Of  all  things,  I  have  been  desirous  that  we 
might  be  able  to  arrive  at  such  a  decision  of  this  mat- 
ter as  would  quiet  the  public  mind,  and  be  just  to  all 
the  people  of  all  the  states. 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN.        345 

"  The  character  of  the  debate,  connected  directly  with 
this  subject,  within  the  last  few  weeks,  must  necessarily 
associate  itself  with  the  question  immediately  before  us 
for  our  decision.  This  bill  sprang  from  that  discussion. 
They  are  one  and  the  same.  That  was  a  bill  for  the 
establishment  of  a  government  for  the  Territory  of  Ore- 
gon. This  includes  also  the  Territories  of  California 
and  New  Mexico.  As  there  is  no  connection  in  these 
matters,  I  had  hoped  to  have  seen  each  bill  presented 
by  itself — to  stand  upon  its  own  merits,  or  fall  upon  its 
demerits.  The  Senate  has  decided  that  they  shall  not 
be  separated,  and  we  must  meet  it  as  it  is  presented.  I 
will  state  the  reasons  why  I  am  compelled  to  withhold 
from  it  my  vote. 

"  We  have  acquired  the  territories  over  which  this  bill 
extends.  They  are  embraced  within  the  Union,  and  it 
now  becomes  our  duty  to  legislate  for  them.  It  is 
proper  and  just  that  we  should  extend  over  them  the 
laws  of  our  country,  and  adopt  such  other  legislation  as 
the  case  shall  demand.  It  is  a  solemn  and  responsible 
trust  committed  to  our  hands.  We  are  about  to  shape 
and  mold  the  character  of  these  territories,  which  in  time 
shall  become  a  mighty  empire.  Their  destiny  is  in  our 
hands;  the  responsibility  is  upon  us.  Whether  that 
country  shall  present  all  the  elements  of  a  free  govern- 
ment, in  which  man  is  elevated  as  an  intellectual  and 
moral  being,  or  whether  the  despotism  of  slavery  shall 
imprint  its  soil,  are  matters  depending  entirely  upon  us. 
Let  wisdom  guide  us  in  the  path  of  duty,  and  let  not 
the  light  of  the  past  be  lost  upon  us  in  our  action.  We 
must  act;  it  now  presents  a  point  from  which  no  man 
can  shrink.  The  issue  can  not  be  avoided  ;  and  let  no 
one  imagine  that  an  intelligent  public  can  doubt  as  to 
the  character  of  that  issue.  No  matter  in  what  form 


346        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  HANNIBAL  HABILItf, 

presented,  it  will  be  clearly  understood.  True,  the  bill, 
like  the  proposition  discussed  by  the  Senate,  does  not 
profess  to  establish  slavery  by  law.  It  leaves  it  to  ex- 
tend itself  by  the  "  silent  operation  "  of  the  law,  without 
restriction.  It  does  not  guarantee  it;  but  will  it  not  per- 
mit it?  and,  after  it  has  found  an  existence,  will  it  not 
demand  a  guarantee?  Thus,  without  inhibition,  will  it 
not  become  certain  and  fixed  by  the  process  of  time  ? 
Is  it  too  much  that  freedom  of  the  soil  shall  be  asked 
and  demanded  from  this  aggressive  march  of  slavery  ? 
I  solemnly  believe  that  this  bill  will  allow  of  the  exten- 
sion of  slavery,  as  certainly  as  if  it  created  it  in  express 
words.  The  bill,  as  I  understand  it,  concedes  practically 
all  that  the  ultra  doctrines  of  the  South  demand,  or  will, 
in  its  operations,  end  in  that.  Let  us,  then,  erect  a  bar- 
rier to  this  tide  of  moral  evil. 

"  With  such  a  bill  as  this,  I  can  not  hesitate  to  give 
the  aid  of  my  voice  and  my  vote  to  arrest  it.  To  know 
and  understand  the  views  of  those  who  sustain  it,  will 
enable  us  to  judge  of  its  merits.  The  public  mind  will 
be  startled  through  all  the  North ;  it  will  thrill  through 
all  the  country  like  an  electric  shock,  that  the  acquisition 
of  territory  from  a  foreign  power  necessarily  subjects  it 
to  the  institution  of  slavery — that  the  flag  of  this  Union 
carries  that  institution  with  it  wherever  it  floats.  This 
is  a  new  principle  in  the  doctrines  of  slavery  propa- 
gandism.  It  is  not  the  doctrine  of  the  founders  of  the 
republic.  Democracy  has  been  called  progressive,  but 
my  word  for  it,  she  goes  along  in  the  old-fashioned 
stage-coach  style,  while  this  doctrine  of  slavery  propa- 
gandism  has  mounted  the  railroad  cars,  if  it  has  not 
assumed  the  speed  of  electricity.  I  repeat,  that  it  will 
startle  the  North  when  it  is  known  that  it  is  gravely  dis- 
cussed here  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL   HAMILN.       347 

whenever  it  extends  over  territory  which  we  may  acquire, 
carries  with  it  and  establishes  the  institution  ;  that  it  in 
fact  abrogates  the  laws  of  the  free,  and  gives,  instead, 
the  power  of  servitude.  This  is  a  doctrine  of  a  later 
day.  It  is  not  the  doctrine  that  accords  with  the  ster- 
ling patriotism  of  the  founders  of  our  republic.  Far 
from  it !  While  such  are  the  views  of  aggressive  slavery 
which  are  promulgated  here,  it  makes  our  path  of  duty 
as  clear  as  sunlight.  We  must  prevent  this  tide,  by 
positive  law,  from  spreading  over  our  free  soil.  This 
extraordinary  demand  of  this  power  leaves  us  but  one 
course  to  pursue.  We  shall  be  faithless  to  ourselves — 
faithless  to  those  we  represent — faithless  to  our  country, 
the  age  in  which  we  live,  and  the  principles  of  Chris- 
tianity, if  we  falter.  We  have  but  to  press  on  ;  and  if, 
from  any  or  various  influences  which  shall  be  brought 
to  bear  against  us,  we  shall  not  succeed,  or  shall  suffer 
a  partial  defeat,  yet — 

"  'Truth  crushed  to  earth  shall  rise  again — 

The  eternal  years  of  God  are  hers ; 
While  Error,  wounded,  writhes  in  pain, 
And  dies  amid  its  worshipers.' 

"While  I  do  not  admit  the  force  or  justice  of  these 
demands,  so  pertinaciously  insisted  upon,  yet  they  must 
be  met,  or  they  will  be  certain  to  prevail.  In  my  judg- 
ment these  doctrines  are  not  deduced  from  the  Consti- 
tution, but  are  in  derogation  of  its  letter  and  spirit; 
that  instrument  is,  in  all  its  terms,  and  in  all  its  scope, 
an  antislavery  instrument.  It  was  conceived,  it  was 
enacted,  it  was  approved  by  the  States  of  this  Union, 
not  in  the  spirit  of  extension  or  creation  of  slavery,  but 
in  a  spirit  which  looked  to  the  future  emancipation  of 
the  slave  in  this  country.  It  looked  not  to  the  exten- 


348       LIFE  AND   SPEECHES  OF   HANNIBAL   HAMLIN. 

sion  of  the  institution,  but  to  the  time  when  this  anom- 
aly in  our  system  of  government  should  cease  to  exist. 

"  I  do  not  propose  to  follow  gentlemen  who  have  dis- 
cussed this  point  at  length,  nor  do  I  propose  to  detain 
the  Senate  with  the  views  and  opinions  which  I  enter- 
tain, and  which  I  have  drawn  from  the  Constitution, 
and  which  have  brought  my  mind  to  a  different  conclu- 
sion. It  is  necessary,  however,  that  I  state  briefly  my 
views;  that  I  state  the  points  without  attempting  to 
elaborate  them.  I  deny,  then,  utterly  and  entirely,  this 
new  doctrine  which  has  been  presented  to  us,  that  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  contains  within  its 
provisions  a  power  to  extend  and  establish  over  territory 
now  free,  the  institution  of  slavery.  If  I  understand 
the  argument  upon  which  it  is  based,  it  is  simply  this  : 
that  these  territories  are  the  property  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States;  that,  as  such,  they  are  open  to  settlement 
by  all  the  people  of  the  United  States  ;  and  that,  as  the 
Constitution  recognized  the  institution  of  slavery  at  its 
adoption,  it  therefore  authorizes  the  institution  in  those 
territories  which  belong  to  the  United  States,  and  in 
which  the  people  of  the  United  States  may  wish  to  re- 
side with  their  slaves.  The  Constitution  does  recognize 
slavery  as  existing,  but  it  does  not  create  or  establish  it. 
Article  1,  section  2,  says : 

'"Representatives  and  direct  taxes  shall  be  apportioned  among 
the  several  states  which  may  be  included  within  the  Union,  ac- 
cording to  their  respective  numbers,  which  shall  be  determined 
by  adding  to  the  whole  number  of  free  persons,  including  those 
bound  to  service  for  a  term  of  years,  and  excluding  Indians  not 
taxed,  three-fifths  of  all  other  persons.' 

"  This,  surely,  is  not  establishing  slavery  by  the  Con- 
stitution ;  it  makes  slaves  a  basis  of  representation  and 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OP   HANNIBAL   HAMLIN.       349 

taxation.     That  is  all.     But  in  another  place  the  Con- 
stitution declares,  (article  4,  section  2  :) 

" '  No  person  held  to  service  or  labor  in  one  state  by  the  laws 
thereof,  escaping  into  another,  shall,  in  consequence  of  any  law 
or  regulation  therein,  be  discharged  from  such  service  or  labor, 
but  shall  be  delivered  up  on  claim  of  the  party  to  whom  such 
service  or  labor  may  be  due.' 

"  From  these  extracts,  it  would  seem  to  be  perfectly 
clear,  that  the  Constitution  does  not  create  or  establish ; 
it  only  recognizes  a  class  of  persons  held  to  service  in 
the  states  by  "the  laics  thereof,"  not  by  virtue  of  the 
Constitution.  That  clause,  when  fairly  construed,  is 
only  an  inhibition  upon  the  free  states,  that  they  shall 
not  pass  laws  to  prevent  the  owners  of  slaves  from  re- 
claiming them.  The  argument  that  slavery  is  recognized 
by  the  Constitution  is  used  as  equivalent  to  establishing. 
The  laws  of  the  state  support  and  maintain  it,  not  the 
Constitution.  It  is  a  state  institution,  resting  on  the 
local  law  of  the  state,  without  the  aid,  without  the  sup- 
port, without  the  maintenance  of  the  Constitution,  in 
any  way  whatever.  Yet  in  the  face  of  all  this,  it  is  con- 
tended, and  attempted  to  be  proved  by  metaphysical  rea- 
soning, that  the  Constitution  extends  beyond  the  states 
in  which  slavery  is  established ;  that  it  carries  it  into 
free  territories,  and  guarantees  it  there.  Can  this  be  so? 
and  if  so,  where  will  the  power  end  ?  If  the  institution 
is  one  which  has  its  foundation  in  the  Constitution,  and 
not  one  resting  upon  laws  of  the  states,  where  is  the 
limit  to  its  extension  ?  What  is  the  next  step  in  the 
application  of  the  argument?  After  you  have  overrun 
your  territories,  what  power  can  prevent  the  slaveholder 
from  coming  into  the  free  states  with  his  slaves?  If 
his  right  is  a  Constitutional  one  ;  if  he  rests  his  claim 


350       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   HANNIBAL   HAMLIN. 

there,  and  is  correct,  a  state  law  could  not  affect  him, 
because  it  would  be  in  conflict  with  the  Constitution.  I 
can  not  see  how  this  conclusion  can  be  avoided.  If  the 
premises  are  correct,  that  result  must  follow.  But  I 
neither  admit  the  premises  nor  the  conclusion.  The 
Constitution  gives  no  right,  it  creates  no  right ;  it 
merely  recognizes  a  right  which  is  created  by  the  laws 
of  the  state.  That  it  is  a  local  institution,  there  can  be 
no  doubt.  The  courts  of  nearly  all  the  states  have  so 
decided.  Authorities  to  any  extent  could  be  cited ;  they 
are  familiar  to  all.  The  moment  a  slave  goes  beyond 
the  limits  of  the  state  where  slavery  exists,  he  becomes 
free.  It  must,  therefore,  look  alone  to  local  laws  for  its 
support. 

"I  hold  that  the  Constitution,  in  and  of  itself,  by  its 
express  language,  authorizes  Congress  to  inhibit  this 
institution  in  our  territories.  I  hold  that  the  article  in 
the  Constitution  which  gives  to  Congress  the  power  to 
make  all  needful  rules  and  regulations  respecting  its 
territories,  includes  full  and  absolute  authority  over  this 
whole  matter.  What  is  the  language  of  this  clause  of 
the  Constitution  ? 

' '  Congress  shall  have  power  to  dispose  of,  and  make  all  need- 
ful rules  and  regulations  respecting  the  territory  or  other  prop- 
erty of  the  United  States.' 

"  What  is  this  grant  of  power  ? 

"  1st.  Congress  may  dispose  of  its  public  domain. 

"2d.  It  may  make  'all  needful  rules  and  regulations 
respecting  the  territory  or  other  property  of  the  United 
States.' 

"  To  dispose  of,  is  to  give,  grant,  or  convey  the  public 
lands;  but  to  make  all  needful  rules  and  regulations, 
implies  and  carries  with  it  full  and  ample  power  of  legis- 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN.        351 

lation,  in  all  cases  where  the  Constitution  does  not  other- 
wise prohibit.  There  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  meaning 
of  the  terms  '  rules  and  regulations.'  The  Constitution 
itself  interprets  them.  A  law  is  defined  to  be  'a  rule  of 
action  prescribed  by  the  supreme  power  in  the  state.' 
The  Constitution  gives  Congress  power  to  '  regulate  com- 
merce'— to  make  '•rules  concerning  captures' — 'to  make 
rules  for  the  government  and  regulation  of  the  land  and 
naval  forces.'  It  also  provides  that  persons  escaping 
from  one  state  into  another,  shall  not  be  discharged  from 
service  in  '  consequence  of  any  law  or  regulation  there- 
in.' In  this  case  both  terms  are  used — '  all  needful  rules 
and  regulations ' — to  give  the  widest  scope  to  the  power. 
But  it  is  said  that  the  concluding  words  in  the  clause 
quoted — '  or  other  property  ' — limit  and  confine  our  le- 
gislation over  the  territory  to  the  same  as  property. 
Grant  that  our  territories  are  denominated  as  property, 
whether  inhabited  or  not,  does  not  the  same  power  exist 
to  pass  all  needful  rules  and  regulations  for  its  settle- 
ment and  its  final  admission  into  the  Union  as  a  state? 
The  power  is  clearly  within  the  scope  and  meaning  of 
that  clause. 

"  The  history  of  the  manner  in  which  that  clause  be- 
came a  part  of  the  Constitution,  would  settle  the  question, 
if  there  could  be  a  reasonable  doubt.  In  the  Articles  of 
Confederation,  by  which  the  states  were  united,  before 
the  Constitution  was  formed,  no  such  power  was  found. 
This  grant  of  power  was  therefore  made  in  the  forming 
of  the  Constitution,  for  the  purpose  of  giving  Congress 
the  power.  The  doings  of  the  Convention,  and  the  dec- 
larations of  Mr.  Madison,  are  clear  upon  this  point.  But, 
aside  from  this  view  of  the  case,  we  have  the  uninter- 
rupted use  of  the  power  by  the  General  Government  for 
about  sixty  years.  Hardly  a  Congress  has  existed  which 


352        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN. 

has  not  acted  upon  this  power,  from  1787  to  this  time. 
This  power  has  been  exercised  by  Washington,  Jefferson, 
Jackson,  and  Van  Buren.  The  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  have  settled  this  question.  Congress  has 
already  exercised  the  power,  and  that  power  has  been 
declared  valid  by  the  Supreme  Court.  1  Peters'  Rep., 
543,  Chief  Justice  Marshall  says: 

" '  Whatever  may  be  the  source  whence  this  power  is  derived, 
the  possession  of  it  is  unquestionable.' 

"In  5th  Peters'  Rep.,  44,  again  the  Court  says: 

"  'Rules  and  regulations  respecting  the  territories  of  the  United 
States,  necessarily  include  complete  jurisdiction.' 

"Again,  the  power  is  contained  in  the  bill  vpon  which 
we  are  acting.  It  continues  the  laws  of  Oregon  in  force 
for  three  months  after  the  meeting  of  the  Legislature. 
It  provides,  in  the  Territories  of  California  and  New  Mex- 
ico, that  the  legislative  power  shall  not  pass  any  laics  on 
the  subject  of  religion  or  slavery.  Here  we  use  the  power 
in  its  broadest  sense.  We  inhibit  the  use  or  exercise  of 
any  power  on  either  of  said  subjects,  and  some  others. 

"Could  there  be  any  doubt  still  remaining,  and  if  we 
had  no  grant  of  power  in  the  Constitution  at  all,  there 
would  yet  be  another  source  from  which  we  must  gather 
it.  If  the  Constitution  was  silent,  as  it  is  not,  yet  under 
that  power  which  we  can  acquire,  we  could  most  certainly 
govern.  It  matters  little  where  you  find  the  power  to 
acquire ;  if  you  do  acquire,  you  must  have  the  power  to 
govern.  The  first  is  the  major,  the  second  is  the  minor 
proposition.  It  would  not  be  good  sense  to  contend 
that  we  have  a  power  to  acquire  public  domain,  and  yet 
could  not  pass  needful  rules  and  regulations  for  its  gov- 
ernment. The  case,  when  stated,  is  its  own  best  argu- 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN.        353 

ment.  The  sovereignty  to  acquire  must  contain  the 
lesser  power  to  govern.  These  are  briefly  the  reasons 
which  force  conviction  upon  my  mind.  Casuists  have 
been  known  to  deny  their  own  existence,  and  satisfac- 
torily to  prove  it  to  their  own  minds.  That  may  be  a 
plausible  and  a  practical  doctrine,  when  contrasted  with, 
the  one  that  we  have  no  power  to  govern  our  territories. 
It  is  '  too  late,'  at  the  noon  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
to  deny  that  right,  or  for  us  to  avoid  the  duty  of  acting. 
"  Having  the  power  to  act,  what  is  the  responsible  duty 
which  I  feel  imposed  upon  me?  (for  I  speak  for  none 
other.)  It  is,  that  I  should  exert  all  the  power  which, 
the  Constitution  gives  to  exclude  the  institution  of  slav- 
ery from  our  territories  now  free,  because  it  is  a  social, 
moral,  and  political  evil.  That  such  is  its  character, 
needs  no  argument  to  prove.  They  are  conceded  facts 
— supported  by  the  declarations  and  admonitions  of  the 
best  and  wisest  men  of  the  South — 

"  '  In  thoughts  that  breathe,  and  words  that  burn. 

"I  would  resist  the  introduction  of  that  institution  in 
justice  to  a  superior  race  of  men — men  who  are  capable 
of  a  higher  state  of  social  and  political  refinement.  I 
would  institute  such  governments  as  are  best  calculated 
to  advance  the  true  interests  of  our  own  Caucasian  race, 
and  not  degrade  the  dignity  of  labor  by  fastening  upon 
it  the  incubus  of  slavery.  I  would  resist  it,  because  I 
would  not  invoke  or  use  the  name  of  Democracy  to  strike 
down,  as  with  the  iron  mace  of  a  despot,  the  principles 
of  social  equality  and  freedom.  I  would  not  profane  the 
sacred  name  of  Freedom,  while  using  it,  to  impose  a  tyr- 
anny upon  the  minds  or  persons  of  men.  Jefferson  has 
said,  that  '  God  has  no  attribute  which  can  take  sides 
with  us  in  such  a  cause.'  The  eloquent  Pinckney  has  de- 
30 


354       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   HANNIBAL    HAMLIX. 

clared,  'That  the  earth  itself,  which  teems  with  profusion 
under  the  cultivating  hand  of  the  free-born  laborer, 
shrinks  into  barrenness  from  the  contaminating  sweat  of 
the  slave.'  Sir,  my  course  is  a  plain  one,  and  clear  from 
all  doubt.  Our  position  is  unquestionable.  We  stand 
in  defense  of  free  soil,  and  resist  aggressive  slavery. 
And  we  demand  enactments  for  the  protection  of  free 
soil  against  this  aggression.  We  will  not  disturb  that 
institution,  but  we  will  stand  in  defense  of  the  freedom 
of  our  soil  as  right  in  principle  and  beneficial  to  free 
white  labor  in  all  parts  of  our  common  country. 

"I  have  expressed  the  hope  that  we  might  have  met 
upon  a  common  ground  upon  the  settlement  of  this  ques- 
tion— a  question  which  has  agitated  so  much  the  public 
mind;  and  more  did  I  hope  for  it  when  I  listened  to 
the  patriotic  breathings  of  the  message  of  the  President 
on  this  subject;  when  I  listened  to  the  language  he  used 
in  his  message,  when  he  submitted  the  treaty  of  peace 
with  Mexico  to  us,  and  called  our  attention  to  this  mat- 
ter now  before  us  for  our  ultimate  decision.  When  I 
heard  that  language  read  by  the  Secretary,  and  recalled 
the  history  of  the  events  to  which  he  had  invited  our  at- 
tention, I  had  hoped  that  the  spirit  of  the  fathers  of  the 
republic  had  not  altogether  departed,  that  the  language 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  had  not  become  ob- 
solete. I  had  hoped  that  we  would  come  up,  and,  in  the 
language  of  the  President,  in  a  spirit  of  forbearance  and 
of  patriotism,  have  settled  the  question  in  a  way  which 
would  have  secured  the  approbation  of  the  country. 

"Allow  me  to  read  from  the  President's  message  : 

M'In  organizing  governments  over  these  territories,  fraught 
with  such  vast  advantages  to  every  portion  of  our  Union,  I  in- 
voke that  spirit  of  concession,  conciliation,  and  compromise  in  your 
deliberations,  in  which  the  Constitution  was  framed,  in  which  it 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   HANNIBAL   HAMLIN.       355 

should  be  administered,  and  which  is  so  indispensable  to  preserve 
and  perpetuate  the  harmony  and  union  of  the  states.  We  should 
never  forget  that  this  union  of  confederated  states  was  established 
and  cemented  by  kindred  blood,  and  by  the  common  toils,  suffer- 
ings, dangers,  and  triumphs  of  all  its  parts,  and  has  been  the 
ever-augmenting  source  of  our  national  greatness  and  of  all  our 
blessings.' 

"  This  is  the  ground  upon  which  we  should  have  met 
and  decided  the  question.  It  is  in  this  spirit  of  liberal 
and  elevated  patriotism  that  I  had  hoped  that  this  ques- 
tion would  have  been  settled,  and  that  it  would  not  have 
been  merged  in  a  mere  question  of  power  or  of  local  or 
sectional  character.  I  had  hoped  that  we  would  have 
been  guided  by  the  lights  of  experience." 

MR.  DAVIS,  of  Mississippi. — "I  would  ask  the  senator, 
if  he  will  allow  me,  whether  he,  as  the  representative  of 
the  people  of  Maine,  is  now  ready,  or  has  at  any  time 
been  ready,  to  vote  for  the  Missouri  Compromise  line  be- 
ing extended  until  it  terminates  in  the  Pacific?" 

MR.  HAMLIN. — "  I  frankly  answer,  no.  Because  the 
spirit  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  not  the  spirit 
which  marked  the  wisdom  of  the  framers  of  the  Consti- 
tution. I  would  not  vote  to  extend  an  arbitrary  line, 
which,  permits  the  extension  of  the  institution  of  slavery 
over  any  portion  of  the  continent." 

MR.  CLAYTON. — "  Did  not  the  senator  vote  for  the 
Missouri  Compromise  upon  the  annexation  of  Texas?" 

MR.  HAMLIN.—"  I  did  not." 

MR.  CLAYTON. — "  He  voted  for  the  annexation  of  Texas, 
did  he  not?" 

MR.  HAMLIN. — "I  was  in  favor  of  the  annexation  of 
Texas,  but  I  did  not  vote  for  the  resolutions  for  the  an- 
nexation of  Texas  which  passed  the  House,  nor  did  I 
vote  for  the  Missouri  Compromise  contained  in  the  reso- 


356       LIFE    AND   SPEECHES   OP   HANNIBAL   HAMLIN. 

lutions.  A  senator  from  Illinois,  (Mr.  Douglas,)  then 
a  member  of  the  House,  offered  the  Compromise  there. 
It  was  adopted,  but  I  voted  against  its  adoption,  and 
against  the  resolutions  after  it  was  incorporated  into 
them.  The  resolutions  came  to  the  Senate,  and  the  dis- 
tinguished senator  from  Missouri  (Mr.  Benton)  offered 
another  and  distinct  resolution  to  accomplish  the  annexa- 
tion of  Texas.  Mr.  Hamlin  said  such  was  his  recollec- 
tion, and  he  would  inquire  of  the  senator  of  Missouri 
whether  he  offered  the  alternate  resolution  ?" 

MR.  BENTON. — "It  is  of  very  little  importance  who 
offered  the  amendment. 

MR.  HAMLIN. — "  Yes,  it  is  of  very  little  importance 
who  offered  it.  All  knew  that  it  originated  with  that 
distinguished  senator.  For  that  resolution  I  voted ; 
and  deeply  is  it  to  be  regretted  that  the  annexation  had 
not  been  accomplished  as  that  resolution  provided.  The 
treasure  of  the  country  would  have  been  saved,  and  the 
lives  of  our  citizens  preserved.  We  should  have  had  no 
Mexican  war.  I  did  not  then  vote  for  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise, and  I  would  not  vote  for  it  to-day.  I  would 
vote  for  no  arbitrary  line,  even  if  it  took  the  southern 
boundary  of  New  Mexico  and  California,  running  to  the 
coast  of  the  Pacific.  I  would  vote  for  no  rigid  fixed 
line,  whether  upon  a  direct  parallel  of  latitude  or  wind- 
ing, because  it  would  lead  to  the  very  difficulties  which 
Mr.  Jefferson,  in  his  letter  recognizing  the  Missouri 
Compromise  in  1820,  alluded  to  with  so  much  force, 
when  he  said  that  it  would  create  sectional  parties — that 
it  would  strike  upon  the  ear  '  like  a  fire-bell  at  night.' 
But  this  line  of  36°  30',  running  to  the  Pacific,  has  other 
and  insuperable  objections,  besides  those  already  named. 
The  superiority  of  our  race  and  political  institutions, 
with  the  events  of  the  past,  teach  us,  with  unerring  cer- 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN.        357 

tainty,  that  our  government  is  destined  to  extend  over 
this  country.  Establish  this  line,  and  you  doom  the 
whole  of  the  continent  south  to  the  curse  of  slavery, 
when  it  shall  become  a  part  of  our  Union.  You  estab- 
lish it  on  a  section  of  country  over  which  free  labor  can 
not  pass.  That  will  be  the  inevitable  result  of  such  a 
line.  Can  it  be  doubted  that  such  is  the  design  ?" 

MR.  CLAYTON. — "  The  senator  speaks  of  compromise  ; 
will  he  tell  us  what  compromise  he  alludes  to?" 

ME.  HAMLIN. — "  I  am  coming  to  that,  and  should 
have  done  so  if  I  had  not  been  diverted  by  these  inter- 
rogatories. In  the  language  of  the  President's  message, 
I  would  have  our  deliberations  consummated  in  '  that 
spirit  of  concession,  conciliation,  and  compromise  in 
which  the  Constitution  was  framed.'  Then  we  would 
have  no  difficulty  in  the  settlement  of  this  question. 
What  is  the  history  of  the  times  cotemporaneous  with  the 
formation  of  that  instrument?  The  Constitution  was 
adopted  by  the  Convention,  September  17,  1787.  Vir- 
ginia, in  the  spirit  of  wisdom  and  patriotism  worthy  of 
her  ancient  fame,  had  ceded  to  the  General  Government 
all  her  lands  lying  northwest  of  the  Ohio  river,  and  be- 
ing all  the  lands  lying  within  the  limits  of  the  Union. 
On  the  thirteenth  day  of  July,  1787,  and  while  the  Con- 
vention was  in  session  to  form  a  Constitution,  Virginia 
entered  into  a  compact  with  the  States,  and  established 
what  is  known  as  the  ordinance  of  '87,  forever  excluding 
slavery  from  all  that  country.  Thomas  Jefferson,  the 
patriot,  statesman,  and  sage,  was  the  originator  of  the 
principle  in  that  ordinance  which  excluded  slavery  from 
that  territory.  Nay,  it  went  further;  it  abolished  slav- 
ery there  and  made  it  free  soil.  I  think,  too,  that  the 
history  of  these  times  will  satisfy  all,  that  this  noble  and 
patriotic  act  was  designed  to  aid  in  the  formation  of  the 


358        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL  IIAMLIN. 

Constitution  by  acting  upon  the  Convention.  In  the 
same  spirit  of  restriction,  too,  did  that  Convention 
authorize  Congress  to  inhibit  the  importation  of  slaves 
into  the  United  States  after  the  year  1808.  This  is  the 
history  of  those  times — this  is  the  spirit  of  conciliation 
and  compromise  that  mark  those  days ;  let  us  adopt  it 
now,  and  our  work  is  done.  We  need  not  go  so  far  in 
the  rule  which  we  will  adopt.  The  ordinance  was  an  act 
of  abolition.  I  would  not  abolish  slavery  in  the  states, 
and,  so  help  me  God,  I  would  not  abolish  freedom  in  our 
territories.  Let  us  have  nothing  of  abolition,  either 
north  or  south,  nor  fix  lines  which  shall  divide  a  country 
without  regard  to  its  character  or  construction — which 
shall  create  sectional  parties,  the  worst  and  most  to  be 
deplored  of  all.  But  let  the  character  of  the  country  be 
determined  and  settled  as  it  shall  be  on  its  acquisition. 
If  free,  so  let  it  remain,  and  so  let  it  be  preserved.  If 
slave  territory,  so  then  let  it  continue  without  our  action. 
When  we  look  at  former  acquisitions,  it  would  seem 
that  the  South  should  not  object  to  this  manner  of  com- 
promise. From  our  former  acquisitions,  seven  slave 
states  have  been  added  to  this  Union,  and  three  more  of 
the  largest  class  provided  for,  to  be  carved  out  of  Texas. 
One  free  state  only  has  been  added  from  these  acquisi- 
tions. Justice  to  the  North  demands  this  course  in  a 
settlement  of  this  question.  Here  is  a  compromise  upon 
which  all  can  meet,  and  one  which  can  not  create  these 
sectional  divisions  which  all  must  deprecate.  If  I  have 
a  desire  in  my  heart  above  all  others,  it  is  that  this  vexed 
question  shall  be  settled — that  it  shall  be  taken  from  the 
vortex  of  political  conflicts,  and  the  people  quieted.  Ad- 
here to  the  ancient  landmarks,  conform  to  the  settled 
usage  of  the  country,  and  such  will  be  the  happy  result. 
So  much  upon  our  power  and  duty  to  act. 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL   HAMLIN.       359 

"  The  bill  before  us  is  objectionable  in  its  provisions, 
as  well  as  in  the  manner  in  -which  it  is  presented.  It 
comes  in  a  triangular  shape,  with  Oregon  as  the  base,  and 
California  and  New  Mexico  for  its  side  lines.  Oregon 
has  no  connection  with  the  other  territories,  and  why, 
then,  are  they  chained  and  thus  connected  together? 
Why  not  let  each  stand  by  itself?  Why  make  the  one 
depend  upon  the  fate  of  the  other?  I  can  see  no  suffi- 
cient reason.  For  years  the  people  of  Oregon  have  been 
demanding  a  government,  and  bill  after  bill  has  passed  the 
other  House,  but  as  often  as  they  have  reached  this  body 
they  have  been  either  permitted  to  sleep  '  the  sleep  that 
knows  no  waking,'  or  they  have  been  defeated  by  those 
who  now  claim  to  be  the  most  vigilant  sentinels.  Dur- 
ing this  session,  and  within  a  few  weeks  past,  Congress 
has  been  admonished,  in  a  message  from  the  President, 
that  savage  hordes  were  committing  depredations  upon 
the  whites,  and  the  bill  was  not  passed.  The  bill  was 
before  the  Senate,  and  in  accordance  with  the  prayer  of 
the  people  of  Oregon,  it  contained  a  section  inhibiting 
slavery  from  the  territory.  It  was  the  general  impres- 
sion that  that  section  could  not  be  stricken  out.  A 
motion  was  made  to  recommit  to  a  committee  of  eight, 
which  was  carried,  and  the  bill  comes  back  to  us  chained 
to  the  other  territories,  and  with  that  section  in  the  bill 
restricting  slavery  in  Oregon  so  modified  that  it  secures 
freedom  for  three  months  only  after  the  first  Territorial 
Legislature  shall  meet.  This  bill  is  called  by  some  a 
compromise  ;  all  that  I  can  see  which  entitles  it  to  that 
name,  is,  that  it  does  provide  that  the  laws  in  Oregon 
which  exclude  slavery  shall  remain  in  force  for  three 
months.  A  compromise,  indeed  !  " 

Mr.  CLAYTON. — "  If  the  senator  will  allow  me,  it  may 
not  be  inappropriate  to  make  an  explanation  upon  this 


360       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OP   HANNIBAL   HAMLIN. 

point  concerning  which  an  inquiry  has  been  made. 
Section  12  provides  that  the  laws  now  existing  in  the 
Territory  of  Oregon  shall  remain  as  they  are  until  three 
months  after  the  first  meeting  of  the  Legislature  of  the 
Territory.  The  senator  from  Maine  understands,  of 
course — I  take  it  for  granted  that  is  his  doctrine — that 
the  Legislature  of  Oregon  will  have  the  power  upon  the 
subject  of  slavery.  Gentlemen  who  argue  as  he  does, 
argue  that  the  Territorial  Legislature  has  full  power  over 
this  subject.  Now,  take  the  sixth  section  in  connection 
with  the  twelfth.  The  sixth  section  provides  that  the 
legislative  power  of  the  Territory  shall  extend  to  all 
rightful  subjects  of  legislation,  consistent  with  the  Con- 
stitution and  the  provisions  of  this  act.  The  gentleman 
holds  that  the  Legislature  can,  consistently  with  the 
provisions  of  the  Constitution,  legislate  on  the  subject 
of  slavery.  If  it  can  do  this,  it  will  do  it.  If  it  can  not 
do  this  consistently  with  the  Constitution,  it  ought  not 
to  do  it.  Now,  take  the  twelfth  and  sixth  sections 
together,  and  the  whole  will  be,  I  think,  plain  to  the 
mind  of  any  one.  I  do  not  see  how  gentlemen,  advocat- 
ing the  opinions  which  are  advocated  by  the  gentleman 
from  Maine,  can  object  to  this  provision  of  the  bill." 

MR.  HAMLIN. — "  From  the  explanation  which  the  hon- 
orable chairman  of  the  committee  has  given,  I  apprehend 
that  I  did  not  misunderstand  the  scope  and  meaning  of 
the  twelfth  section  of  this  bill,  and  if  the  gentleman  had 
listened  to  the  conclusion  which  I  drew  from  that  section, 
taken  in  connection  with  the  sixth,  he  would  have  had 
no  occasion  to  interrupt  me.  I  repeat,  then,  that  the 
compromise  of  this  bill  is  one  which  concedes  that  the 
fundamental  law  now  existing  in  the  Territory  of  Oregon 
shall  remain  in  force  for  three  months,  and  for  only  three 
months.  That  is  the  only  concession  which  I  can  find  in 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OP    HANNIBAL    HAMLIN.        361 

the  bill,  and  if  for  that  it  is  to  be  taken  as  a  compro- 
mise bill,  why  then  let  it  be  called  such.  The  twelfth 
section  concedes  that  the  laws  of  the  Territory  shall  re- 
main in  force  for  three  months  after  the  Territorial 
Government  shall  have  met.  They  will  then  cease  and 
be  no  longer  in  force,  unless  the  Territorial  Government 
shall  see  fit  to  re-enact  them,  and  send  them  here  for  the 
approval  of  Congress.  Now,  if  it  were  intended  as  a 
compromise,  why  repeal  all  the  laws  of  the  Territory? 
Why  was  the  law  regarding  the  exclusion  of  slavery  not 
permitted  to  remain  in  force  until  the  Territorial  Legis- 
lature should  see  fit  to  change  it?  Why  abrogate,  and 
then  compel  them  to  re-enact  their  laws  ?  Sir,  it.  is 
not  worth  the  name  of  compromise.  This  is  the  funda- 
mental objection.  It  repeals  all  the  laws  of  the  Territory 
after  three  months,  and  the  seventeenth  section  provides 
that— 

"'All  laws  passed  by  the  Legislative  Assembly  shall  be  sub- 
mitted to  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  and  if  disapproved, 
shall  be  null  and  of  no  effect;1 

thus  making  the  legislative  acts  of  Oregon  depend  on. 
our  approval  or  disapproval.  Is  it  not,  then,  literally 
true,  that  this  bill  concedes  the  free  principle  to  Oregon 
for  only  three  months,  after  which  it  must  depend  upon 
action  here  ?  So  I  understand  it. 

"There  is,  to  my  mind,  another  and  most  peculiar 
feature  in  this  bill,  rendering  it  most  inconsistent  in  its 
character.  It  creates  for  Oregon  a  territorial  govern- 
ment, and  gives  it  a  Legislature  elected  by  the  people 
thereof.  It  is  a  government  in  which  the  people  partici- 
pate. Every 

"'Free  •white  male  inhabitant  above   the  age  of  twenty-one 
years,  who  shall  have  been  a  resident  of  said  Territory  at  the 
31 


362       LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN. 

time  of  the  passage  of  this  act,  shall  be  entitled  to  vote  at  the  first 
election.1 

"  And  it  gives  the  Legislature  power  over  all  rightful 
subjects  of  legislation.  In  California  and  New  Mexico 
this  bill  deprives  the  people  of  all  power,  and  of  any 
participation  in  the  government  over  them.  It  creates 
an  odious  oligarchy  over  that  people  of  the  most  objec- 
tionable kind.  It  sets  up  a  government,  not  with  the 
consent  and  participation  of  the  people,  but  rather  in 
defiance  of  their  just  rights. 

" '  SECT.  26.  The  legislative  power  of  said  Territory,  shall,  until 
Congress  shall  otherwise  provide,  be  vested  in  the  Governor,  Sec- 
retary, and  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  who,  or  a  majority  of 
them,  shall  have  power  to  pass  any  law  for  the  administration  of 
justice  in  said  Territory,  which  shall  not  be  repugnant  to  this  acf, 
or  inconsistent  with  the  laws  and  Constitution  of  the  United 
States.  But  no  law  shall  be  passed  interfering  with  the  primary 
disposal  of  the  soil,  respecting  an  establishment  of  religion,  or 
respecting  slavery;  and  no  tax  shall  be  imposed  upon  the  prop- 
erty of  the  United  States,  nor  shall  the  lands  or  other  property 
of  non-residents  be  taxed  higher  than  the  lands  or  other  property 
of  residents.  All  the  laws  shall  be  submitted  to  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States,  and,  if  disapproved,  shall  be  null  and  void.' 

"What  good  reason  there  may  be  for  intrusting  full 
power  and  sovereignty  to  the  people  of  Oregon,  while  you 
•wholly  deny  it  to  California,  I  do  not  understand.  Why 
adopt  one  system  for  Oregon,  and  another  for  California? 
Is  it  said  that  the  people  of  California  are  not  yet  suited 
to  participate  in  a  free  government  or  in  the  enactments 
of  laws  ?  If  such  even  were  the  fact,  why  wholly  exclude 
them  from  all  rights?  But  Senators  know,  that  at  tins- 
day  there  are  some  five  or  six  thousand  American  citi- 
zens there,  and  they  are  ruthlessly  excluded.  Is  their 
capacity  for  free  government  to  be  mistrusted?  Is  it 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   HANNIBAL   HAMLIN.       363 

not  rather  from  the  fact  that  they  would  set  up  a  free 
government  indeed,  that  they  are  deprived  of  all  power? 
I  know  there  is  a  mixed  population  in  California,  and  so 
it  is  in  Oregon  ;  but  the  same  limitations  and  restric- 
tions which  apply  in  one  case  can  be  applied  in  the  other. 
The  right  of  voting  has  been  confined  in  Oregon  to  the 
"  free  white  inhabitants."  The  same  limitation  may 
apply  to  California.  No  sound  distinction  can  be  drawn 
in  these  cases,  yet  a  republican  government  is  estab- 
lished in  one  case,  and  an  oligarchy  in  the  others. 
These  people  were  but  a  short  time  since  the  subjects  of 
a  foreign  power,  and  sound  policy  would  dictate  that  we 
should  not  set  up  a  despotism  over  them.  Is  it  not 
better  to  authorize  our  own  people  to  participate  in  this 
government,  and  allow  the  free  white  Castilian  race  the 
same  power?  Is  it  not  sound  policy  as  well  as  correct 
in  principle  ?  Will  it  not  fraternize  them  with  our  peo- 
ple and  our  Government?  On  the  other  hand,  without 
power  in  the  local  laws  by  which  they  are  governed,  will 
they  not  be  alien  to  our  Union,  and  unfraternal  to  our 
people  ?  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  all  laws  which 
would  be  passed  in  California,  as  in  Oregon,  would  be 
subject  to  the  approval  or  disapproval  by  Congress. 
This  system  is  wholly  repugnant  to  our  form  of  govern- 
ment. It  is  in  violation  of  that  fundamental  principle 
which  recognizes  the  '  consent  of  the  governed/  as  the 
basis  of  government.  We  are  told  that  such  is  the  early 
form  of  our  territorial  governments.  Be  it  so.  It  is 
not  the  form  of  later  years.  If  it  were,  the  application 
should  be  uniform,  not  applied  to  the  free  white  popula- 
tion of  one  territory  and  not  to  another. 

The  settlement  of  the  question  of  slavery  by  this  bill, 
it  is  said,  is  to  be  determined  by  the  Supreme  Court.     I 


364        LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OP    HANNIBAL   HAMLIN. 

think,  if  that  be  the  case,  this  is  the  first  instance  in  the 
history  of  legislation  where  a  question  purely  of  a  polit- 
ical character  has  been  transferred  to  the  judiciary.  It 
is  avoiding  what  necessarily  belongs  to  us  to  determine. 
Is  this  the  part  of  wisdom,  or  manly  dignity  and  firm- 
ness, to  avoid  the  settlement  of  a  question  which  is 
political,  and  which  belongs  to  us  ?  I  think  not.  We 
are  told  that  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
can  determine  whether  slavery  will  exist  there  or  not,  if 
this  bill  shall  pass.  That  by  the  twenty-second  section 
of  this  bill,  a  right  to  appeal  is  granted  from  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  territories  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States.  Suppose  it  to  be  so.  What  would  the 
right  of  appeal  be  worth  practically  ?  Suppose  slavery 
steals  in  there,  as  it  will,  how  can  the  slave  avail  him- 
self of  this  right  of  appeal  ?  Who  is  to  aid  him,  in  the 
first  instance,  to  obtain  his  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  on 
which  to  try  the  question  of  his  right  to  freedom  ?  And 
if  he  should  get  that  process  and  take  the  first  step,  how 
could  he  appeal?  Who  would  be  his  surety?  and,  at 
the  distance  of  three  thousand  miles  from  Washington, 
by  what  means  could  he  reach  the  court  ?  This  right  of 
appeal,  if  it  existed  by  law,  could  have  no  practical  effect 
whatever.  It  leaves  all  unsettled,  in  fact,  while  two 
lines  in  a  law  we  may  pass,  by  simply  inhibiting  the  in- 
stitution, will  settle  all.  But,  sir,  the  bill,  in  fact,  does 
not  grant  even  a  right  to  appeal  in  a  case  of  this  kind. 
Though  the  right  of  appeal  in  certain  cases  is  granted, 
it  does  not  include  this  case. 

"  The  bill  establishes  'a  Supreme  Court,  District  Court, 
and  Probate  Courts.'     The  bill  also  provides  that — 

"'Writs  of  error  and  appeals  from  (he  final  decisions  of  said 
Supreme  Court  shall  be  allowed,  and  may  be  taken  to  the  Supreme 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   HANNIBAL   HAMLIN.       365 

Judicial  Court  of  the  United  States,  in  the  same  manner  and  under 
the  same  regulations  as  from  the  Circuit  Court  of  the  United 

States.' 

"  To  understand  correctly  what  are  the  rights  of  ap- 
peal granted  in  this  bill,  it  becomes  necessary  to  see  in 
•what  cases,  and  in  what  manner,  writs  of  error  and  ap- 
peals are  granted  from  the  Circuit  Courts  to  the  Supreme 
Judicial  Court  of  the  United  States.  Then  we  can 
learn  whether  there  is,  in  fact,  anything  practical  in  this 
right  of  appeal.  This  bill  does  not  determine,  in  words, 
how  appeals  shall  be  had,  but  refers  to  existing  laws 
granting  writs  of  error  and  appeals.  What  are  those 
laws  ?  Section  22,  chapter  20,  United  States  Laws,  reg- 
ulates the  manner  of  granting  appeals  from  the  Circuit 
Court  to  the  Supreme  Judicial  Court  of  the  United  States. 
It  says :  rr 

'"Final  judgments  and  decrees,  in  civil  actions  and  suits  in 
equity,  in  Circuit  Courts,  brought  there  by  original  process,  or  re- 
moved there  from  the  courts  of  the  several  states,  and  removed 
there  by  appeal  from  a  District  Court,  where  the  matter  in  dispute 
exceeds  the  sum  or  value  of  two  thousand  dollars,  exclusive  of  costs, 
may  be  re-examined  and  reversed  or  affirmed  in  the  Supreme  Court.' 

"  The  right  of  appeal,  then,  is  given  only  when  the 
property  exceeds  in  value  two  thousand  dollars.  As  that 
would  be  greater  than  the  value  of  a  person  who  might 
sue  out  his  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  no  right  of  appeal 
would  exist. 

"  But,  on  this  point,  we  are  not  left  to  the  doubtful  or 
uncertain  construction  of  a  statute,  although  the  language 
of  that  statute  is,  to  my  mind,  clear  and  positive.  The 
Supreme  Judicial  Court  of  the  United  States,  our  high- 
est legal  tribunal,  have  settled  and  adjudicated  that 
question.  It  meets  this  case  precisely.  The  case  to 


366        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN. 

winch  I  refer  is  one  involving  the  right  of  appeal  from 
the  decision  of  the  Circuit  Court  to  the  Supreme  Court, 
on  the  process  of  the  habeas  corpus.  Barry  vs.  Mercein 
et.  al.,  5  Howard's  Rep.,  103.  This  case  was  decided  at 
January  term,  1847 : 

"'This  court  has  no  appellate  power  in  a  case  where  the  Cir- 
cuit Court  refused  to  grant  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  prayed  for 
by  a  father  to  take  his  infant  child  out  of  the  custody  of  its 
mother.' 

"  '  The  judgment  of  a  Circuit  Court  can  be  reversed  only  where 
the  matter  in  dispute  exceeds  the  sum  or  value  of  two  thousand 
dollars.  It  must  have  a  known  and  certain  value,  which  can  be 
proved  and  calculated  in  the  ordinary  business  transactions.' 

"  So  the  Court  has  decided  this  case.  No  right  of 
appeal  could  lie.  If  it  did,  every  man  knows  that  it 
would.be  utterly  useless  as  a  practical  matter.  It  would 
not,  and  could  not  reach  the  case  of  a  person  held  to 
service — no  right  of  trial  can  exist  beyond  the  limits  of 
the  Territory  by  this  bill.  It  does  not  meet  the  case. 
But  even  if  it  did  apply  to  this  case,  it  would  be  prac- 
tically useless.  If  it  could  apply  to  one  case,  it  would  be 
powerless  in  thousands.  It  is  all  delusive.  It  does  not 
allow  an  appeal  at  all. 

"  How,  then,  stands  the  case?  You  establish  a  gov- 
ernment in  California,  a  governor  and  secretary  are  ap- 
pointed by  the  President,  and  three  judges,  who  are  not 
removable,  and  to  them  you  commit  the  legislative  power 
of  the  Territory ;  you  deny  them  the  power  to  legislate 
at  all  upon  the  subjects  of  religion  or  slavery !  even  if 
every  person  in  the  Territory  should  desire  to  exclude 
the  latter.  You  deprive  the  people  of  the  right  to  act 
at  all — you  refuse  to  act  here,  and  one-half  of  the  Senate 
nearly  denying  the  power.  Is  not  this  virtually  build- 
ing up  a  wall  around  that  Territory,  which  will  and  must 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN.         367 

serve  as  a  protection  to  this  institution  ?  What  is  the 
origin  of  slavery  ?  It  is  never  created  by  law  ;  it  steals 
into  territory,  and  then  claims  a  law  to  recognize  it. 
The  senator  from  Virginia  (Mr.  Mason)  says  : 

"  '  There  never  was  a  law  in  Virginia  creating  slavery,  and  I 
doubt  if  there  lias  been  such  a  law  in  any  of  the  Southern  States." 

"  Such  is  the  fact.  There  is  no  law  creating  it.  It 
exists  by  brute  force,  in  the  violation  of  the  rights  of 
everything  human  or  Divine.  Were  we  called  upon, 
could  we  justify  it  if  we  thus  surrender  up  this  vast 
country — these  great  principles  of  human  freedom,  and 
exclude  from  it  the  free  white  labor  of  the  whole  land? 
That  this  bill  will  do  it,  there  can  be  no  doubt,  as  it 
restricts  that  power  which  alone  could  prevent  it.  It 
inhibits  all  power  in  the  territory  from  preventing  the 
lawless  spread  of  slavery.  That  inhibition  will  prove  a 
guarantee.  Or,  certain  it  is,  that  while  you  thus  prevent 
the  use  of  all  power  to  exclude  slavery  from  the  territory, 
it  would  be  as  certain  as  the  decree  of  fate,  that  it  would 
steal  in,  as  it  has,  into  all  the  territories,  and  then  claim- 
ing vested  rights,  it  would  demand  and  obtain  laws  secur- 
ing and  recognizing  it.  Such  has  been  its  history  in 
every  state  where  it  now  exists  ;  such  will  be  the  result 
here  if  this  bill  shall  become  a  law. 

"  The  senator  from  Delaware  gave  us  the  extent  of 
the  area  included  in  those  territories  north  of  the  paral- 
lel of  36°  30'.  I  was  unable  to  get  the  precise  amount ; 
out  if  I  am  right  in  my  recollection,  the  aggregate  of 
tvritory  north  of  that  parallel  was  about  one  million  five 
Hundred  thousand  square  miles." 

MR.  CLAYTON.—"  One  million  six  hundred  thousand 
Square  miles." 

MR.   HAMLIN. — "  And    that   south    of   that    parallel 


368         LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL  HAMLTN. 

the  area  was  about  three  hundred  thousand  square 
miles." 

MR.  CLAYTON. — "  Two  hundred  and  sixty-two  thou- 
sand square  miles." 

MR.  HAMLIN. — "  Now,  sir,  we  have  not  the  Missouri 
Compromise  before  us  for  discussion.  What  was  the 
object  of  the  gentleman,  then,  in  presenting  that  table 
of  figures?  Why  did  not  the  gentleman,  in  connection 
with  it,  present  other  facts  and  figures  for  our  considera- 
tion ?  Why  did  he  not  state,  that  in  our  free  states  the 
population  is  about  twelve  millions,  and  in  the  slave  states 
about  eight  millions  ?  Why  did  he  not  present  another 
element — the  relative  proportion  of  territory  between  the 
free  and  the  slave  states?  I  have  not  made  an  exact 
calculation  on  that  point,  but  I  believe  that  the  propor- 
tion is  about  as  nine  to  four,  the  free  states  having  an 
area  of  less  than  four  and  a  half  millions  of  square  miles, 
and  that  the  slave  states  embrace  an  area  of  more  than 
nine  millions  of  square  miles,  twice  as  great  as  that  of 
the  free  states.  Why  did  not  the  gentleman  from  Dela- 
ware go  still  further  into  the  statistical  view  of  the  sub- 
ject, and  show  that  even  with  every  inch  of  territory 
down  to  the  southern  limit  of  California  and  New  Mexico, 
somewhere  between  the  years  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty 
and  eighteen  hundred  and  seventy,  under  the  operation 
of  the  laws  which  have  heretofore  governed  our  increase, 
the  population  of  the  free  states  would  be  more  circum- 
scribed, more  to  the  square  mile,  than  that  of  the  slave 
states?"  .<£•. 

MR.  CLAYTON. — "  The  honorable  senator  has  so  re- 
peatedly called  upon  me,  that  I  must  again  answer.  As 
chairman  of  the  committee,  I  stated  its  proceedings.  I 
stated  that  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  proposed;  that 
Northern  gentlemen  voted  against  it,  and  Southern 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN.        369 

gentlemen  for  it;  and  that,  if  adopted,  the  effect  of  it 
would  have  been  to  give  one  million  six  hundred  thou- 
sand square  miles  to  the  North,  and  two  hundred  and 
sixty-two  thousand  square  miles  to  the  South." 

MR.  HAMLIN. — "  I  do  not  object  to  the  gentleman's 
statement,  but  I  merely  expressed  the  opinion  that  it 
would  be  much  more  pertinent  to  the  occasion,  had  it 
been  accompanied  by  some  of  those  interesting  statistics 
to  which  I  alluded. 

"  There  are  other  objections  to  the  bill  to  which  I 
would  gladly  allude,  but  I  have  already  detained  the 
Senate  longer  than  I  designed  or  anticipated.  Looking 
to  the  lights  of  other  days — the  patriots  of  other  times 
— the  eloquent  warnings  which  we  have  had  from  our 
Washington,  Madison,  our  Jefferson,  our  Mason,  ay, 
and  from  our  own  Pinckney,  too,  and  all  that  long  list 
of  patriotic  men  of  the  South  who  have  adorned  this 
Union,  who  have  pointed  out  the  evils  that  would  come 
upon  us  by  perpetuating  and  extending  this  institution, 
I  owe  it  to  the  constituents  whom  I  represent,  to  our 
posterity,  to  all  the  toiling  millions  who  are  seeking  an 
asylum  in  our  land,  to  embrace  this  opportunity  of  oppos- 
ing, with  unshaken  firmness,  any  attempt  to  introduce  or 
permit  this  institution  to  flow  into  territory  now  free. 
Let  these  vast  and  fertile  regions  be  preserved  for  the 
cultivation  of  free  labor  and  free  men,  so  well  calculated 
to  advance  the  arts  of  civilization.  Do  this,  and  the 
teeming  and  busy  millions  of  future  ages  shall  bless  our 
acts  with  grateful  hearts." 

On  the  12th  of  June,  1856,  Mr.  Hamlin  relinquished 
his  position  as  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Commerce, 
and  his  allegiance  with  the  party  with  which  he  had  so 
long  been  connected,  declaring  his  reasons  for  this  ac 


370       LIFE   AND  SPEECHES   OP    HANNIBAL   HAMLIN. 

tion  in  a  speech  which  created  a  profound  sensation  in 
the  Senate  and  the  country.  Mr.  Hamlin  said: 

"  Mr.  President,  I  rise  for  a  purpose  purely  personal, 
such  as  I  have  never  before  risen  for  in  the  Senate.  I 
desire  to  explain  some  matters  personal  to  myself  and 
to  my  own  future  course  in  public  life, 

SEVERAL  SENATORS. — "  Go  on." 

MR.  HAMLIN. — "  I  ask  the  Senate  to  excuse  me  from 
further  service  as  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Com- 
merce. I  do  so  because  I  feel  that  my  relations  here- 
after will  be  of  such  a  character  as  to  render  it  proper 
thai  I  should  no  longer  hold  that  position.  I  owe  this 
act  to  the  dominant  majority  in  the  Senate.  When  I 
cease  to  harmonize  with  the  majority,  or  tests  are  applied 
by  that  party  with  which  I  have  acted  to  which  I  can 
not  submit,  I  feel  that  I  ought  no  longer  to  hold  that 
respectable  position.  I  propose  to  state  briefly  the  rea- 
sons which  have  brought  me  to  that  conclusion. 

"  During  nine  years  of  service  in  the  Senate,  I  have 
preferred  rather  to  be  a  working  than  a  talking  member, 
and  so  I  have  been  almost  a  silent  one.  On  the  sub- 
jects which  have  so  much  agitated  the  country,  Senators 
know  that  I  have  rarely  uttered  a  word.  I  love  my 
country  more  than  I  love  my  party.  I  love  my  country 
above  my  love  for  any  interest  that  can  too  deeply  agi- 
tate or  disturb  its  harmony.  I  saw,  in  all  the  exciting 
scenes  and  debates  through  which  we  have  passed,  no 
particular  good  that  would  result  from  my  active  inter- 
mingling in  them.  My  heart  has  often  been  full,  and 
the  impulses  of  tnat  heart  have  often  been  felt  upon  my 
lips,  but  I  have  repressed  them  there. 

"Sir,  I  hold  that  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compro- 
mise was  a  gross  moral  and  political  wrong,  unequaled 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN.       371 

in  the  annals  of  the  legislation  of  this  country,  and 
hardly  equaled  in  the  annals  of  any  other  free  country. 
Still,  sir,  with  a  desire  to  promote  harmony,  and  concord, 
and  brotherly  feeling,  I  was  a  quiet  man  under  all  the 
exciting  debates  which  led  to  that  fatal  result.  I  be- 
lieved it  wrong  then  ;  I  can  see  that  wrong  lying  broad- 
cast all  around  us  now.  As  a  wrong,  I  opposed  that 
measure,  not  indeed  by  my  voice,  but  with  consistent,  and 
steady,  and  uniform  votes.  I  so  resisted  it  in  obedience 
to  the  dictates  of  my  own  judgment.  I  did  it  also 
cheerfully,  in  compliance  with  the  instructions  of  the 
Legislature  of  Maine,  which  were  passed  by  a  vote  almost 
unanimous.  In  the  House  of  Representatives  of  Maine, 
consisting  of  one  hundred  and  fifty-one  members,  only 
six,  I  think,  dissented;  and  in  the  Senate,  consisting  of 
thirty-one  members,  only  one  member  non-concurred. 

"  But  the  Missouri  restriction  was  abrogated.  The 
portentous  evils  that  were  predicted  have  followed,  and 
are  yet  following,  along  in  its  train.  It  was  done,  sir, 
in  violation  of  the  pledges  of  that  party  with  which  I 
have  always  acted,  and  with  which  I  have  always  voted. 
It  was  done  in  violation  of  solemn  pledges  of  the  Pres- 
ident of  the  United  States,  made  in  his  inaugural  address. 
Still,  sir,  I  was  disposed  to  suffer  the  wrong,  until  I 
should  see  that  no  evil  results  were  flowing  from  it. 
We  were  told  by  almost  every  senator  who  addressed  us 
upon  that  occasion,  that  no  evil  results  would  follow; 
that  no  practical  difference  in  the  settlement  of  the 
country,  and  the  character  of  the  future  state,  would 
take  place,  whether  the  act  were  done  or  not.  I  have 
waited  calmly  and  patiently  to  see  the  fulfillment  of  that 
prediction ;  and  I  am  grieved,  sir,  to  say  now,  that  they 
have  at  least  been  mistaken  in  their  predictions  and 
promises.  They  all  have  signally  failed. 


372        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL  HAMLTN. 

"  That  senators  might  have  voted  for  that  measure 
under  the  belief  then  expressed,  and  the  predictions  to 
which  I  have  alluded,  I  can  well  understand.  But  how 
senators  can  now  defend  that  measure  amid  all  its  evils, 
which  are  overwhelming  the  land,  if  not  threatening  it 
with  a  conflagration,  is  what  I  do  not  comprehend.  The 
whole  of  the  disturbed  state  of  the  country  has  its  rise 
in,  and  is  attributable  to,  that  act  alone,  nothing  else. 
It  lies  at  the  foundation  of  all  our  misfortunes  and 
commotions.  There  would  have  been  no  incursions  by 
Missouri  borderers  into  Kansas,  either  to  establish  slavery 
or  control  elections.  There  would  have  been  no  neces- 
sity, either,  for  others  to  have  gone  there  partially  to  aid 
in  preserving  the  country  in  its  then  condition.  All 
would  have  been  peace  there.  Had  it  not  been  done, 
that  repose  and  quiet  which  pervaded  the  public  mind 
then,  would  hold  it  in  tranquillity  to-day.  Instead  of 
startling  events  we  should  have  quiet  and  peace  within 
our  borders,  and  that  fraternal  feeling  which  ought  to 
animate  the  citizens  of  every  part  of  the  Union  toward 
those  of  all  other  sections. 

"  Sir,  the  events  that  are  taking  place  around  us  are 
indeed  startling.  They  challenge  the  public  mind  and 
appeal  to  the  public  judgment;  they  thrill  the  public 
nerve  as  electricity  imparts  a  tremulous  motion  to  the 
telegraphic  wire.  It  is  a  period  when  all  good  men 
should  unite  in  applying  the  proper  remedy  to  secure 
peace  and  harmony  to  the  country.  Is  this  to  be  done 
by  any  of  us,  by  remaining  associated  with  those  who 
have  been  instrumental  in  producing  these  results,  and 
who  now  justify  them?  I  do  not  see  my  duty  lying  in 
that  direction. 

"  I  have,  while  temporarily  acquiescing,  stated  here 
and  at  home,  everywhere,  uniformly,  that  when  the  tests 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN.        373 

of  those  measures  were  applied  to  me  as  one  of  party 
fidelity,  I  would  sunder  them  as  flax  is  sundered  at  the 
touch  of  fire.  I  do  it  now. 

"  The  occasion  involves  a  question  of  moral  duty;  and 
self-respect  allows  me  no  other  line  of  duty  but  to  follow 
the  dictates  of  my  own  judgment  and  the  impulses  of 
my  own  heart.  A  just  man  may  cheerfully  submit  to 
many  enforced  humiliations,  but  a  self-degraded  man  has 
ceased  to  be  worthy  to  be  deemed  a  man  at  all. 

"  Sir,  what  has  the  recent  Democratic  Convention  at 
Cincinnati  done?  It  has  indorsed  the  measure  I  have 
condemned,  and  has  sanctioned  its  destructive  and  ruin- 
ous effects.  It  has  done  more,  vastly  more.  That  prin- 
ciple or  policy  of  territorial  sovereignty  which  once  had, 
and  which  I  suppose  now  has,  its  advocates  within  these 
walls,  is  stricken  down ;  and  there  is  an  absolute  denial 
of  it  in  the  resolution  of  the  Convention,  if  I  can  draw 
right  conclusions — a  denial  equally  to  Congress,  and  even 
to  the  people  of  the  territories,  of  the  right  to  settle 
the  question  of  slavery  therein.  On  the  contrary,  the 
Convention  has  actually  incorporated  into  the  platform 
of  the  Democratic  party  that  doctrine  which,  only  a  few 
years  ago,  met  nothing  but  ridicule  and  contempt,  here 
and  elsewhere,  namely :  that  the  flag  of  the  Federal 
Union,  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
carries  slavery  wherever  it  floats.  If  this  baleful  prin- 
ciple be  true,  then  that  national  ode  which  inspires  us 
always  as  on  a  battle-field  should  be  rewritten  by  Drake, 
and  should  read  thus : 

" '  Forever  float  that  standard  sheet ; 

Where  breathes  the  foe  but  falls  before  us, 
With  SLAVERY'S  soil  beneath  our  feet, 

And  SLAVERY'S  banner  streaming  o'er  us  ?' 

"  Now,  sir,  what  is  the  precise  condition  in  which  this 


374       LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN. 

matter  is  left  by  the  Cincinnati  Convention  ?  I  do  not 
design  to  trespass  many  moments  on  the  Senate;  but 
allow  me  to  read  and  offer  a  very  few  comments  upon 
some  portions  of  the  Democratic  platform.  The  first 
resolution  that  treats  upon  the  subject  is  in  these  words — 
I  read  just  so  much  of  it  as  is  applicable  to  my  present 
remarks : 

"'That  Congress  has  no  power  under  the  Constitution  to  inter- 
fere with  or  control  the  domestic  institutions  of  the  several  states, 
and  that  all  such  states  are  the  sole  and  proper  judges  of  every- 
thing appertaining  to  their  own  affairs  not  prohibited  by  the 
Constitution.' 

"  I  take  it  that  this  language,  thus  far,  is  language 
which  meets  a  willing  and  ready  response  from  every 
senator  here ;  certainly  it  does  from  me.  But  in  the 
following  resolution  I  find  these  words : 

" '  Resolved,  That  the  foregoing  proposition  covers,  and  was 
intended  to  embrace,  the  whole  subject  of  slavery  agitation  in 
Congress.' 

"  The  first  resolution  which  I  read  was  adopted  years 
ago  in  Democratic  conventions.  The  second  resolution 
which  I  read  was  adopted  in  subsequent  years,  when  a 
different  state  of  things  had  arisen,  and  it  became  neces- 
sary to  apply  an  abstract  proposition  relating  to  the 
states  to  the  territories.  Hence  the  adoption  of  the 
language  contained  in  the  second  resolution  which  I 
have  read. 

"  Now,  sir,  I  deny  the  position  thus  assumed  by  the 
Cincinnati  Convention.  In  the  language  of  the  Senator 
from  Kentucky,  (Mr.  Crittenden,)  so  ably  and  so  appro- 
priately used,  on  Tuesday  last,  I  hold  that  the  entire  and 
unqualified  sovereignty  of  the  territories  is  in  Congress. 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OP   HANNIBAL   HAMLIN.       375 

That  is  my  judgment;  but  this  resolution  brings  the 
territories  precisely  within  the  same  limitations  which 
are  applied  to  the  states  in  the  resolution  which  I  first 
read.  The  two  taken  together  deny  to  Congress  any 
power  of  legislation  in  the  territories. 

"Follow  on,  and  let  us  see  what  remains.  Adopted 
as  a  part  of  the  present  platform,  and  as  necessary  to  a 
new  state  of  things,  and  to  meet  an  emergency  now  ex- 
isting, the  Convention  says : 

"'The  American  Democracy  recognize  and  adopt  the  principles 
contained  in  the  organic  laws  establishing  the  Territories  of  Kan- 
sas and  Nebraska,  as  embodying  the  only  sound  and  safe  solution 
of  the  slavery  question,  upon  which  the  great  national  idea  of  the 
people  of  this  whole  country  can  repose,  in  its  determined  con- 
servatism of  the  Union — non-interference  by  Congress  with  slavery 
in  states  and  territories." 

Then  follows  the  last  resolution  : 

"  '  Resolved,  That  we  recognize  the  right  of  the  people  of  all  the 
territories,  including  Kansas  and  Nebraska,  acting  through  the 
fairly  expressed  will  of  the  majority  of  actual  residents,  and 
whenever  the  number  of  their  inhabitants  justifies  it,  to  form  a 
Constitution  with  or  without  domestic  slavery,  and  be  admitted 
into  the  Union  upon  terms  of  perfect  equality  with  the  other 
States.' 

"  Take  all  these  resolutions  together,  and  the  deduc- 
tion which  we  must  necessarily  draw  from  them  is  a 
denial  to  Congress  of  any  power  whatever  to  legislate 
upon  the  subject  of  slavery.  The  last  resolution  denies 
to  the  people  of  the  territory  any  power  over  that  sub- 
ject, save  when  they  shall  have  a  sufficient  number  to 
form  a  Constitution  and  become  a  state,  and  also  denies 
that  Congress  has  any  power  over  the  subject ;  and  so 
the  resolutions  hold  that  this  power  is  at  least  in  abey- 


376       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OP   HANNIBAL   HAMLIN. 

ance  while  the  territory  is  in  a  territorial  condition. 
That  is  the  only  conclusion  which  you  can  draw  from 
these  resolutions.  Alas  !  for  short-lived  territorial  sov- 
ereignty. It  came  to  its  death  in  the  house  of  its 
friends ;  it  was  buried  by  the  same  hands  which  had 
given  it  baptism  ! 

"  But,  sir,  I  did  not  rise  for  the  purpose  of  discussing 
these  resolutions,  but  only  to  read  them,  and  state  the 
action  which  I  propose  to  take  in  view  of  them.  I 
may — I  probably  shall — take  some  subsequent  occasion, 
when  I  shall  endeavor  to  present  to  the  Senate  and  the 
country  a  fair  account  of  what  is  the  true  issue  presented 
to  the  people  for  their  consideration  and  decision. 

"My  object  now  is  to  show  only  that  the  Cincinnati 
Convention  has  indorsed  and  approved  of  the  repeal  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise,  from  which  so  many  evils  have 
already  flowed ;  from  which,  I  fear,  more  and  worse  evils 
must  yet  be  anticipated.  It  would,  of  course,  be  expected 
that  the  presidential  nominee  of  that  Convention  would 
accept,  cordially  and  cheerfully,  the  platform  prepared 
for  him  by  his  party  friends.  No  person  can  object  to 
that.  There  is  no  equivocation  on  his  part  about  the 
matter.  I  beg  leave  to  read  a  short  extract  from  a 
speech  of  that  gentleman,  made  at  his  own  home,  within 
the  last  few  days.  In  reply  to  the  Keystone  Club,  which 
paid  him  a  visit  there,  Mr.  Buchanan  said : 

"  'Gentlemen,  two  weeks  since  I  should  have  made  you  a  longer 
speech,  but  now  I  have  been  placed  on  a  platform  of  which  I  most 
heartily  approve,  and  that  can  speak  for  me.  Being  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  great  Democratic  party,  and  not  simply  James 
Buchanan,  I  must  square  my  conduct  according  to  the  platform 
of  the  party,  and  insert  no  new  plank,  nor  take  one  from  H.; 

"These  events  leave  to  me  only  one  unpleasant  duty, 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES   OP   HANNIBAL    HAMLIN.        377 

•which  is  to  declare  here  that  I  can  maintain  political 
associations  with  no  party  that  insists  upon  such  doc- 
trines; that  I  can  support  no  man  for  President  who 
avows  and  recognizes  them  ;  and  that  the  little  of  that 
power  with  which  God  has  endowed  me  shall  be  employed 
to  battle  manfully,  firmly,  and  consistently  for  his  defeat, 
demanded  as  it  is  by  the  highest  interests  of  the  country 
which  owns  all  my  allegiance." 

On  the  9th  and  10th  of  March,  1858,  Mr.  Hamlin  made 
a  long  and  powerful  speech  on  the  bill  for  the  admission 
of  Kansas  into  the  Union  as  a  state.  In  that  speech,  he 
replied  to  Senator  Hammond,  of  South  Carolina,  who  had 
reflected  upon  the  character  of  the  laboring  classes  at  the 
North.  He  said : 

"  I  was  remarking  that  the  senator  from  South  Caro- 
lina had  mistaken  the  character  of  our  laboring  men — I 
speak  of  those  who  are  '  hireling  manual  laborers,'  for  that 
is  his  expression,  in  its  modified  form.  I  think  the  sena- 
tor has  fallen  into  an  error  in  his  estimate  of  the  charac- 
ter of  our  laborers,  and  it  may  have  arisen  from  a  variety 
of  causes.  Our  government  was  indeed  an  experiment. 
It  was  established  for  the  purpose  of  testing  the  capacity 
of  man  for  self-government.  Anterior  to  that  period  of 
time,  during  which  governments  had  existed  which  were 
called  free,  there  had  been  none  which  had  founded  their 
institutions  upon  the  principles  upon  which  ours  were 
proposed  to  be  based.  Under  the  freest  governments 
that  had  ever  existed,  there  were  prerogatives  and  rights 
secured  to  power,  and  laws  creating  privileged  classes; 
but  it  was  the  object  and  intention  of  the  founders  of  our 
government  to  do  away  with  such  a  state  of  things,  which 
had  existed  theretofore  in  every  government  in  the  world. 
Ours  was  to  be  a  government  resting  on  the  consent  of 
tho  governed.  That  was  the  object.  We  sought  to  tako 
32 


378       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES  OF   HANNIBAL    IIAMLIN. 

away  the  prerogatives  which  gathered  around  the  govern- 
ing power,  and  to  establish  a  government  among  us  that 
should  elevate  man  intellectually  and  politically  to  that 
sphere  and  to  that  position  to  which  he  was  justly  entitled. 

"  When  the  senator  from  South  Carolina  undertakes  to 
draw  imaginary  distinctions  between  classes  of  laborers,  he 
goes  back  to  the  old,  the  worn,  the  rotten,  and  the  dis- 
carded systems  of  ages  that  have  long  since  passed.  I 
tell  that  senator  what  is  true,  that  we  draw  no  imaginary 
distinctions  between  our  different  classes  of  laborers — 
none  whatever.  '  Manual  laborers  ! '  Well,  sir,  who  are 
the  manual  laborers  of  the  North,  that  are  degraded  and 
placed  beside  the  slave  of  the  South  by  the  senator  from 
South  Carolina  ?  Who  are  our  manual  laborers  ?  Sir,  all 
classes  in  our  community  are  manual  laborers ;  and,  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent,  they  are  hireling  manual  laborers. 
They  constitute,  I  affirm,  a  majority  of  our  community — 
those  who  labor  for  compensation.  I  do  not  know,  I  con- 
fess I  can  not  understand,  that  distinction  which  allows  a 
man  to  make  a  contract  for  the  service  of  his  brains,  but 
denies  him  the  right  to  make  a  contract  for  the  service 
of  his  hands.  There  is  no  distinction  whatever  between 
them.  We  draw  none ;  we  make  none.  Who  are  that 
class  of  citizens  in  our  community  who  are  its  hirelings  ? 
That  is  the  term.  I  do  not  know  whether  he  designs  it 
as  opprobrious ;  but  that  is  the  term  with  which  he  desig- 
nates our  laborers  of  the  North.  This  is  modern  democ- 
racy ! 

"  Who  are  our  '  hireling  manual  laborers '  of  the 
North?  Sir,  I  can  tell  that  senator  that  they  are  not 
the  mud-sills  of  our  community.  They  are  the  men  who 
clear  away  our  forests.  They  are  the  men  who  make  the 
green  hill-side  blossom.  They  are  the  men  who  build  our 
ships,  and  who  navigate  them.  They  are  the  men  who 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN.          379 

build  our  towns,  and  who  inhabit  them.  They  are  the 
men  who  constitute  the  great  mass  of  our  community. 
Sir,  they  are  not  only  the  pillars  that  support  our  gov- 
ernment, but  they  are  the  capitals  that  adorn  the  very 
pillars.  They  are  not  to  be  classed  with  the  slave.  Our 
laboring  men  have  homes ;  they  have  wives  ;  they  have 
little  ones,  dependent  on  them  for  support  and  mainte- 
nance ;  and  they  are  just  so  many  incentives  and  so  much 
stimulus  to  action.  The  laboring  man,  with  us,  knows  for 
whom  he  toils ;  and  when  he  toils  he  knows  that  he  is  to 
return  to  that  home  where  comfort  and  pleasure  and  all 
the  domestic  associations  cluster  around  the  social  hearth- 
stone. Northern  laborers  are  '  hirelings,'  and  are  to  be 
classed  with  the  negro  slave  ! 

u  Besides  that,  the  men  who  labor  in  our  community 
are  the  men  whom  we  clothe  with  power.  They  are  the 
men  who  exercise  the  prerogatives  of  the  State.  They 
are  the  men  who,  after  having  been  clothed  with  power 
there,  are  sent  abroad  to  represent  us  elsewhere.  They 
do  our  legislation  at  home.  They  support  the  State. 
They  are  the  State.  They  are  men — high-minded  men. 
They  read ;  they  watch  you  in  these  halls  every  day ;  and 
through  all  our  community  the  doings  of  this  branch,  and 
of  the  other,  are  as  well  understood,  and  perhaps  even 
better,  than  we  understand  them  ourselves.  I  affirm  that, 
throughout  our  community,  the  proceedings  of  Congress 
are  more  extensively  and  accurately  read  than  even  by 
ourselves.  These  are  the  men  who  are  to  be  classed  by 
the  side  of  the  slave !  I  think  it  is  true  that,  in  about 
every  three  generations  at  most,  the  wheel  entirely  per- 
forms its  revolution.  You  rarely  find  a  fortune  continu- 
ing beyond  three  generations  in  this  country,  in  the  same 
family. 

"  That  class  of  our  community,  constituting  a  very  large 


380        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN. 

majority,  lias  been  designated  here  as  hireling  laborers, 
white  slaves  !  Why,  sir,  does  labor  imply  slavery  ?  Be- 
cause they  toil — because  they  pursue  a  course  which  en- 
ables them  to  support  their  wives  and  their  families,  even 
if  it  be  by  daily  manual  labor,  does  that  necessarily  imply 
servitude?  Far  from  it.  I  affirm  that  the  great  portion 
of  our  laborers  at  the  North  own  their  homes,  and  they 
labor  to  adorn  them.  They  own  their  own  homes,  and  if 
you  will  visit  them  you  will  find  in  nearly  all  of  them  a 
portion,  at  least,  of  the  literature  of  the  times,  which 
shows  that  they  read ;  you  will  find  there  evidences  to 
satisfy  you  beyond  all  doubt  that  they  are  intelligent,  and 
that  they  are  in  truth  and  in  fact  precisely  what  I  have 
described  them  to  be — the  pillars  of  the  State,  the  State 
itself,  and  the  very  ornaments  and  capitals  that  adorn  the 
columns.  With  them  the  acquisition  of  knowledge  is  not 
a  crime." 

Speaking  of  the  attempt  to  force  a  constitution  on  the 
people  of  the  Territory  of  Kansas,  he  uses  this  vigorous 
language : 

"  Mr.  President,  this  is  all  to  be  done  under  the  '  forms 
of  law.'  I  have  heard  this  phrase  '  forms  of  law,'  until  it 
has  become  painful  to  my  ear.  Forms  of  law !  Will 
you  tell  me  of  the  worst  despotism  that  ever  existed,  that 
did  not  rest  upon  forms  of  law  ?  Will  you  tell  me  of  the 
wickedest  act  that  has  ever  been  perpetrated  by  any  gov- 
ernment, that  has  not  been  done  under  the  forms  of  law  ? 
We  sit  not  here,  sir,  in  the  capacity  of  a  court  to  adjudi- 
cate and  to  construe  the  laws  that  have  been  made ;  we 
are  here  for  the  purpose  of  exercising  our  power  upon 
broader  principles  of  equity  than  those  which  belong  to 
courts ;  but  still  all  courts  which  administer  laws  are 
clothed  with  equity  powers.  All  courts  are  clothed  with 
equity  powers  to  prevent  a  greater  wrong. 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL   HAMIJN.         381 

" '  It  is  a  common  saying,  and  a  true, 

That  strictest  law  is  oft  the  highest  wrong.' 

"  Forms  of  law  !  Why,  let  us  rather  see  to  it  that  the 
substance  of  the  law  is  executed  and  justice  done. 

"  We  are  clothed  with  equity  powers  beyond  those 
which  obtain  in  a  court ;  and  we  are  making  laws ;  we 
are  not  administering  them.  We  ought,  at  the  mere  sug- 
gestion of  wrong  to  these  people,  to  go  to  the  very  basis 
and  ascertain  whether  we  are  about  to  perpetrate  a  wrong 
and  force  upon  them  a  government  which  is  not  their 
own.  But,  sir,  instead  of  that,  we  are  here  day  after  day 
with  petty  juggling  and  pettifogging,  claiming  to  proceed 
under  the  forms  of  law,  forgetting  the  substance.  What 
is  the  substance  ?  What  is  the  right?  What  care  I  here 
in  making  laws  for  what  may  be  a  form.  What  is  the 
substance  ?  What  is  the  great  equity  of  the  case  ?  and  as 
a  legislator  it  is  my  duty  to  apply  myself  to  that.  What 
is  right?  what  is  just?  Let  that  be  done,  and  all  will  be 
well. 

"  Forms  of  law  !  God  knows  there  is  nothing  but  form 
in  it.  Forms  of  law  !  Long  years  ago  the  mother  country 
undertook  to  oppress  these  colonies  by  forms  of  law,  but 
not  as  unjustly  as  we  have  ruled  the  people  of  Kansas ; 
and  she  persecuted  that  great  and  noble  patriot,  John 
Hampden,  under  the  forms  of  law,  and  for  his  love  of  lib- 
erty. There  is  one  other  act  which  has  been  perpetrated 
undpr  the  forms  of  law,  to  which  I  will  allude,  and  then 
I  shall  have  done. 

"  Under  the  forms  of  law  despotism  is  created.  Under 
the  forms  of  law,  all  the  wrongs  of  which  the  mind  of  man 
can  conceive  have  been  perpetrated.  Under  the  forms  of 
law,  and  in  the  name  of  liberty,  liberty  itself  has  been 
stricken  down.  In  the  name  and  under  the  forms  of  law, 
the  Son  of  man  was  arraigned  and  stretched  upon  the 


382       LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN. 

cross.  Under  the  forms  of  law,  you  are  about  to  do  an  act 
here,  unequaled  in  turpitude  by  anything  that  has  been 
recorded  in  all  the  progress  of  time,  save  that  event  to 
which  I  have  just  alluded.  In  all  history,  save  the  cruci- 
fixion of  Christ,  there  is  no  act  that  will  stand  upon  the 
record  of  its  pages  in  after  time  of  equal  turpitude  with 
this  act.  The  purpose  of  it  is  to  extend  human  slavery ; 
and  I  may  well  inquire, — 

" '  Is  this  the  day  for  us  to  sow 

The  soil  of  a  virgin  empire  with  slavery's  seeds  of  woe  ; 
To  feed  with  our  fresh  life-blood  the  Old  World's  cast-off  crime, 
Dropped  like  some  monstrous  early  birth  from  the  tired  lap  of 
Time?' 

We  give  two  extracts  from  the  speech  delivered  by  Mr. 
Hamlin  in  the  House,  January  12,  1846,  on  the  Oregon 
question.  The  first  is  a  most  eloquent  vindication  of  the 
people  of  the  North.  Mr.  Hamlin  said  : 

"  There  was  another  remark  to  which  he  wished  to 
allude.  Too  often  within  these  walls,  in  the  discussion 
of  various  measures,  had  he  heard  taunts  and  reproaches, 
either  directly  or  by  implication,  cast  upon  various  sec- 
tions of  this  Union;  and  when  they  had  been  directed 
to  that  section  where  it  was  his  pride  and  his  pleasure 
to  reside,  he  had  felt  them  thrill  along  his  nerves,  like 
an  electric  shock,  and  the  impulses  of  his  heart  had 
been  upon  his  lips  to  hurl  them  back  again.  But  time 
and  reflection  had  chastened  these  feelings,  and  he 
passed  them  by  in  sorrow  that  they  should  come  from 
the  lips  of  any  individual  on  this  floor;  and  while  it 
was  his  glory  and  his  pride  to  be  an  inhabitant  of  that 
section  whose  motives  were  so  often  questioned  here, 
he  had  a  single  word  to  say  in  behalf  of  that  people. 
He  had  no  objections  to  interpose  here  in  defense  of 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN.       383 

what  may  have  been  the  errors  or  wickedness  of  her 
politicians,  but  in  behalf  of  her  citizens  he  had  a  word 
to  say.  He  believed  them  to  be  as  patriotic  as  any  other 
class  of  citizens  to  be  found  in  our  Union.  They  had 
exhibited  their  patriotism  and  their  valor  on  many  a 
well-fought  field.  Their  bones  had  bleached  on  many 
a  Northern  hill,  and  the  barren  sands  of  the  South  had 
drunk  in  their  best  blood.  Sir,"  said  Mr.  Hamlin,  "I 
point  with  pride  to  the  North,  and  invite  you  there  to 
witness  a  system  which  has  grown  up  with  us,  and 
which  is  our  ornament.  I  point  you  to  our  system  of 
free  labor ;  I  point  you  to  our  common  schools — to 
our  churches  with  their  spires  pointing  toward  heaven 
— and  I  glory  in  them.  They  are  the  monuments  that 
belong  to  a  people  who  have  the  true  spirit  of  citizens 
of  a  free  government.  These  things  were  the  glory 
of  the  North,  and  Mr.  Hamlin  gloried  in  them.  They 
were  bloodless  moral  monuments  which  marked  the 
advancing  progress  of  a  free  people.  But  I  stop  not 
there  ;  I  ask  you  to  go  with  me  throughout  this  whole 
broad  nation  :  and  I  point  you  to  her — I  point  you  to 
the  whole  Union  as  a  monument  of  political  grandeur, 
towering  toward  the  heavens,  upon  which  the  friend 
of  freedom,  wherever  upon  our  globe  he  may  be,  may 
gaze ;  around  whose  highest  summit  the  sunlight  of 
glory  forever  shines,  and  at  whose  base  a  free  people 
reposes,  and,  I  trust,  forever  will  repose.  So  much 
for  New  England,  my  home;  so  much  for  the  Union, 
my  country." 

The  second  shows  the  comprehensive  views  which  Mr. 
Hamlin  had  upon  commercial  questions  at  that  early 
period  in  his  Congressional  career,  and  the  prophetic 
wisdom  with  which  he  foresaw  the  mighty  empire  which 
was  to  be  founded  on  the  shores  of  the  Pacific  : 


384        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN. 

Mr.  Hamlin  next  proceeded  to  the  consideration  of 
this  question  in  a  commercial  point  of  view.  Oregon 
was  ours  ;  it  belongs  to  us  ;  and  the  question  of  title  he 
had  no  disposition  here  to  examine.  It  had  been  thor- 
oughly, ably  examined  by  those  who  are  in  authority, 
and  the  result  has  been  presented  to  the  American  re- 
public, lie  had  no  disposition  to  go  into  that  examina- 
tion. He  should  be  well  satisfied  to  rest  himself  on  him 
who,  at  least,  might  be  considered  the  Achilles  of  this 
question,  in  the  position  that  our  title  was  better  than 
that  of  England.  It  was  more ;  it  was  a  perfect  title. 
This  being  our  territory,  then,  by  laws  and  rules  estab- 
lished by  Great  Britain  herself,  let  them  examine  care- 
fully into  its  importance  in  a  commercial  point  of  view. 
They  were  told,  on  another  occasion,  within  these  walls, 
that  it  was  necessary  to  extend  our  public  domain  in  the 
Southwest,  for  the  purpose  of  securing  to  our  country 
a  monopoly  of  the  cotton-growing  interest;  and  the 
argument  was  as  broad  as  our  Union  ;  it  came  home  to 
the  feelings,  to  the  interests,  and  to  the  principles  of 
action  of  the  representatives  from  every  section  of  our 
country.  Let  them  now  weigh  by  the  same  rules,  the 
rules  established  on  that  occasion,  the  commercial  con- 
siderations involved  in  this  question.  The  Northern  and 
the  Middle  states  are  essentially  manufacturing  states — 
the  Northern  states  particularly  ;  they  are  situated  in  a 
high  latitude,  under  a  forbidding  climate,  and  yet  they 
have  the  industry  of  their  citizens,  the  water-power,  and 
the  facilities  given  them  by  nature  to  render  thora  a 
manufacturing  people.  The  South — the  "  sunny  South" — 
may  grow  the  staple  produce  of  that  country;  and  the 
West  may  be  the  granary  not  only  of  our  own  country, 
but,  give  it  an  outlet,  the  granary  of  the  world.  Then, 
he  said,  in  a  commercial  point  of  view,  this  matter  came 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  HANNIBAL  HA5ILIN.        385 

home  to  the  feelings  and  the  interests  of  every  citizen 
of  every  section  of  our  widely  extended  country.  The' 
North  must  necessarily  be  the  manufacturing  section  of 
this  Union  ;  let  them  have  an  outlet ;  let  there  be  an 
easy  mode  of  transportation  and  communication  to  the 
far  West,  and  we  would  become  the  manufacturers  al- 
most of  the  world.  The  Northern  and  the  Middle  states 
must  be  that  portion  of  our  Union  which  will  supply  not 
only  India  but  China,  and  all  the  Eastern  portions  of  the 
world,  with  their  manufactured  articles.  But  he  stopped 
not  here.  The  matter  came  home  equally  to  the  inter- 
ests of  the  South  ;  because  for  the  supply  of  those  manu- 
factured articles  the  South  would  be  called  upon  for 
their  staple,  for  increased  production  of  that  staple, 
which,  in  its  manufactured  form,  is  thus  destined  to  find 
its  way  to  the  markets  of  the  East.  It  was  a  question 
in  which  the  West  had  no  right  to  assume  a  particular 
interest.  It  was  a  question  which  came  home  equally 
to  the  North,  the  South,  the  East,  and  the  West.  It 
was  a  great  national  question,  co-extensive  with  our 
Union.  Why,  we  were  already  opening  our  markets  in 
the  East ;  we  have  already  established  our  treaty  stipu- 
lations with  China;  we  have  already  sent  our  cotton  and 
manufactured  goods  into  the  Eastern  empire.  Last  year 
more  than  six  millions  of  American  manufactures  were 
sent  to  the  Eastern  continent;  and  of  that  amount  more 
than  four  millions  of  dollars  is  believed  to  have  been  of 
cotton  goods.  We  have  opened  the  Chinese  market ; 
and  in  opening  that  market,  with  the  advance  which 
commerce  will  give  in  that  distant  portion  of  the  globe 
to  civilization,  to  refinement,  and  to  Christianity,  we  have 
opened  a  market  which  will  call  for  untold  millions  of 
the  manufactured  articles  of  the  Northern  and  Middle 
states — manufactured  from  this  staple  of  the  South. 
33 


386       LIFE    AND  SPEECHES  OP   HANNIBAL   HAMLIN. 

Besides,  the  commerce  of  the  North  was  deeply  interested 
in  her  whaling  ships.  That  ocean  is  now  covered  with 
nearly  700  ships,  and  half  a  hundred  smaller  vessels, 
manned  by  more  than  20,000  of  our  citizens,  and  send- 
ing home,  as  the  fruits  of  their  labor,  more  than  three 
millions  of  oil  annually. 

Mr.  Hamlin  proceeded  to  enlarge  upon  the  value 
and  extent  of  the  commerce  which  would  grow  up  be- 
tween the  East  Indies  and  our  Pacific  country,  if  we 
had  possession  of  Oregon.  The  trade  between  the  United 
States  and  East  Indies  was  already  very  important.  But 
it  would  be  vastly  increased  when  we  should  find  a 
route  for  that  trade  overland  to  the  Pacific,  and  across 
that  ocean  to  India.  Wherever  commerce  went,  there 
the  lights  of  civilization  and  Christianity  would  soon  be 
found.  Wherever  the  people  of  the  East  have  become 
enlightened  by  commercial  intercourse  with  us,  she 
would  consume  a  vast  quantity  of  our  products,  while 
they  would  supply  us  liberally  with  theirs.  Who  could 
tell  what  uncounted  millions  of  manufactured  goods  from 
the  United  States  would  be  marketed  in  the  East  Indies? 
Commerce  was,  therefore,  deeply  interested  in  preserving 
the  integrity  of  our  domain.  He  would  gladly  pursue 
this  subject  further  if  time  was  allowed,  and  show  that 
this  question  was  one  that  concerned  the  commerce  of 
the  whole  country,  and  that  the  whole  people  of  the 
United  States  were  interested  in  it.  But  he  was  limited 
in  time,  and  he  could  not  pursue  the  subject  in  all  its 
details. 

He  thus  closes  : 

"  While  gentlemen  talked  of  war,  which  only  existed 
in  the  visions  of  old  men,  or  the  dreams  of  young  ones 
— while  this  bugbear  was  held  up,  we  were  losing  the 
opportunity  to  secure  for  ourselves  and  our  children  this 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   HANNIBAL   HAMLItf.       387 

most  important  and  valuable  country.  What  now  would 
arise,  was  only  an  inference  on  the  part  of  these  gentle- 
men. They  had  not  shown  how  it  would  arise.  They 
had  not  shown  us  the  mochts  operandi.  But  we  well  knew 
that  the  British  pretensions  would  be  strengthened  by 
our  eternal  delay.  The  longer  we  delayed  the  notice, 
the  more  arrogant  would  the  British  pretensions  become. 
One  point  more.  Our  old  men,  the  gentleman  from  Vir- 
ginia says,  see  visions,  our  young  men  dream  dreams. 
He  was  not  old,  and  he  could  not  see  visions ;  and  the 
dreams  he  left  to  the  gentleman  from  Virginia.  Let 
those  who  dreamed  imagine  that  a  war  will  arise  from 
our  assertion  of  our  rights;  he  did  not  believe  it.  But 
without  the  aid  of  visions  he  saw  a  populous  and  enter- 
prising state  on  the  slope  of  the  Pacific,  with  manufac- 
tures, and  commerce,  and  navigation.  The  waters  rush- 
ing down  to  the  Pacific  would  turn  thousands  of  wheels 
and  spindles.  Our  people  would  move  to  that  region, 
and  carry  with  them  all  their  arts  and  skill  in  all  the 
various  branches  of  manufactures  which  we  have  estab- 
lished in  this  region.  In  due  time  they  will  supply  a 
large1  portion  of  America,  as  well  as  Asia,  with  their 
fabrics. 

.  "  It  would  not  be  long  before  our  settlements  would 
extend  down  to  the  Mexican  boundary.  He  appealed 
to  gentlemen  from  the  South  to  come  up  to  the  rescue, 
and  avail  themselves  of  this  fair  opportunity  to  obtain 
Oregon.  He  asked  their  attention  to  the  position  we 
occupied  before  the  American  people  and  the  world  in 
regard  to  this  subject,  and  assured  them  that  for  us  there 
was  no  retreat  from  the  responsibility  of  this  act.  with- 
out incurring  the  just  reproach  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  and,  indeed,  of  the  whole  world.  The 
Executive  had  presented  his  views  to  Congress,  and  had 


388       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   HANNIBAL    HAMLIN. 

recommended  to  us  the  passage  of  the  measure  now  be- 
fore us.  He  had  asked  for  our  early  action  upon  it.  The 
stale  cry  of  war  ought  not  to  prevent  us  from  discharging 
this  duty ;  and  if  we  should  falter  in  performing  it,  we 
should  be  branded  as  unfaithful  to  our  trust.  The  Ex- 
ecutive had  laid  before  us  a  statement  of  our  just  claims, 
showing  that  they  had  a  solid  and  stable  basis.  The 
whole  world  would  be  convinced  of  their  truth  and  jus- 
tice ;  and  would  an  American  Congress  be  found  slow  to 
defend  and  assert  them  ?  He  (Mr.  Hamlin)  would  appeal 
again  to  the  South,  and  to  the  spirit  of  their  fathers — of 
Sumter,  Marion,  and  Pinckney — and  call  upon  them  to 
come  up  to  this  duty  of  defending  our  soil.  Should  fear 
of  consequences  prevent  us  from  vindicating  our  rights 
from  foreign  aggression  ?  Should  the  horrors  of  war 
deter  them  from  pursuing  their  line  of  duty  ?  Will  they 
not  come  up  to  the  struggle,  if  need  be,  and,  like  '  reap- 
ers, descend  to  the  harvest  of  death.'  True,  the  South 
has  peculiar  interests  that  would  be  hazarded  in  a  war ; 
but  has  not  the  whole  Atlantic  border  a  deep  stake  in 
the  continuance  of  peace?  We,  sir,  in  the  Northeast 
have  an  extensive  commerce.  Our  ships  are  found  in 
every  sea  ;  and  we  have  cities  on  the  sea-board  exposed 
to  the  assaults  of  an  enemy.  But,  sir,  we  are  willing 
to  hazard  everything  in  the  defense  of  our  country,  and 
to  lay  all  our  wealth  as  an  offering  on  the  altar  of  the 
public  safety.  But  who  can  believe,  sir,  that  England 
will  go  to  war  because  we  do  an  act  that  we  are  entitled 
to  do  by  treaty  stipulations?  This  was  too  absurd  an 
idea  to  be,  for  a  moment,  entertained  by  any  one. 

"  But  there  was  another  view  of  the  subject.  He  did 
not  pretend,  to  be  a  wizard,  nor  to  foretell  future  events  ; 
but  coming  events  sometimes  cast  their  shadows  before 
them.  Judging  of  the  future  by  the  past,  he  would  say 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN.        389 

that  the  moral  force  of  our  institutions  would  spread 
themselves  over  every  portion  of  this  continent.  Their 
progress  was  as  certain  as  destiny.  He  could  not  be 
mistaken  in  the  idea  that  our  flag  was  destined  to  shed 
its  luster  over  every  hill  and  plain  on  the  Pacific  slope, 
and  on  every  stream  that  mingles  with  the  Pacific. 
What  would  monarchical  institutions  do — what  would 
tyrants  do  in  this  age  of  improvement—  this  age  of  steam 
and  of  lightning  ?  The  mariner's  compass,  the  steam- 
engine,  the  printing  press,  with  the  aid  of  electricity, 
which  has  annihilated  space,  have  made  the  world  like 
the  ear  of  Dionysius.  The  voice  of  freedom  in  our  halls 
of  worship,  in  our  temples,  and  the  knowledge  of  our 
schools  may  be  heard  in  distant  lands,  and  will  be  echoed 
back.  Let  there  be  no  holding  back,  no  folding  of  arms 
in  quiet ;  but  let  us  rather,  in  a  calm  and  dignified  man- 
ner, meet  the  crisis  in  a  way  worthy  of  our  country,  and 
as  American  statesmen. 

"  '  And  the  gun  of  our  nation's  natal  day, 

At  the  rise  and  set  of  sun, 
Shall  boom  from  the  far  Northeast,  away 

To  the  vales  of  Oregon  ; 
And  ships  on  the  sea-shore  luff  and  tack, 
And  send  the  peal  of  triumph  back.'  " 

We  do  not  propose  to  refer  at  length  to  Mr.  Hamlin'a 
numerous  business  speeches,  as  the  interest  in  such 
efforts  passes  away  with  the  occasion.  We  refer  to  two 
elaborate  speeches  of  his  on  the  fisheries,  made  in  the 
Senate,  as  illustrative  of  the  great  research  which  he  is 
able  to  bring  to  bear  upon  historical  or  practical  ques- 
tions. 

In  a  speech  delivered  in  the  Senate  on  the  4th  of 
May,  1858,  Mr.  Hamlin  defended  the  system  of  fishing 


390        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN. 

bounties  against  the  attacks  made  upon  it  by  Mr.  Clay, 
of  Alabama.     He  said  : 

"  Mr.  President,  the  relations  which  the  fisheries  have 
borne  in  every  country  to  the  commercial  and  naval 
prosperity  of  that  country,  I  think,  are  intimate  and 
important.  They  are  measured  by  no  narrow  vision ; 
they  are  circumscribed  by  no  local  position;  and  I  think, 
if  the  senator  from  Alabama  (Mr.  Clay)  had  risen  above 
the  mere  locality  of  the  fisheries,  and  had  proceeded  to 
make  an  investigation  of  the  subject  upon  a  broader 
principle,  he  might  have  come  to  a  different  conclusion; 
at  least  he  might  have  divested  himself  of  that  bitter- 
ness which  was  witnessed  in  the  sneer  upon  his  face,  if 
not  in  the  language  which  he  uttered,  when  he  said  that 
the  taking  of  cod  was  a  momentous  concern.  The  mere 
act  of  taking  cod  may  be  objectionable,  if  the  senator 
pleases,  to  that  sneer;  but  when  measured  by  other 
considerations  that  justly  and  properly  belong  to  it,  and 
when  viewed  in  an  enlightened  sense — in  that  sense 
which  belongs  to  an  American  statesman  and  to  an 
American  senator — it  is  worthy  of  anything  else  but 
the  sneer  of  any  senator.  The  fisheries  are  local.  The 
Ruler  of  the  world  has  made  them  so.  The  waters  of 
the  far  North  are  the  fields  in  which  the  fish  are  taken, 
and  it  would  be  natural  to  suppose  that  the  people  re- 
siding near  to  those  fields  are  employed  in  that  pursuit. 
Though  they  are  local,  they  are,  nevertheless,  in  their 
importance,  national.  So  the  fields  in  which  the  sugar- 
cane is  cultivated  are  peculiar  to  that  State  which  is- 
represented  by  the  senator  who  sits  beside  me,  (Mr. 
Benjamin  ;)  and  I  affirm  here  to-day,  that  while  you 
pay  a  bounty  to  the  fishermen  for  national  purposes,  asJ 
I  shall  endeavor  to  establish,  you  pay  a  bounty,  by  your 
pystem  of  revenue  laws,  to  the  planters  and  growers  of- 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OP   HANNIBAL   HAMLIN.       391 

•* 

sugar-cane  in  Louisiana.  You  may  say  that  the  one  is 
based  upon  revenue,  and  for  revenue  purposes.  My 
answer  is,  that  the  other  is  for  a  purpose  as  national 
and  as  broad  ;  and  that  is,  of  training  seamen  for  the 
naval  service. 

"In  every  country  which  has  existed  from  the  form- 
ation of  the  world  to  the  present  time,  the  relations 
between  the  fisheries  and  the  commerce  and  the  naval 
power  of  the  country  have  been  intimate  and  direct, 
Indeed,  sir,  there  is  no  country  on  the  face  of  the  globe 
that  has  been  marked  and  distinguished  for  its  naval  or 
its  commercial  supremacy,  that  has  not  had  a  corps  of 
fishermen  from  which  to  support  both  of  these  institu- 
tions. From  the  days  of  Scripture  times,  from  the  day 
when  Sidon  was  founded,  which  was  the  city  of  fish, 
down  to  the  present  moment,  there  has  been  no  nation, 
that  has  not  relied  for  its  commercial  and  its  naval  pros- 
perity upon  its  fisheries  as  nurseries  for  seamen,  to  sup- 
ply both  its  commerce  and  its  navy." 

After  showing,  by  copious  illustrations,  the  importance 
attached  to  the  fisheries  by  the  first  statesmen  of  the 
land,  before,  during,  and  subsequent  to  the  Revolutionary 
war,  he  says : 

"  But,  sir,  I  want  to  show  you  what  was  the  part  which 
these  fishermen  bore,  not  only  in  the  Revolutionary  war, 
but  in  the  war  of  1812.  I  invite  your  attention  to  the 
very  important  part  which  they  contributed,  and  I  think 
no  class  contributed  more — I  had  almost  said  that  all 
other  classes  had  not  contributed  as  much — to  produce 
that  happy  result  which  was  produced  in  either  case,  as 
these  fishermen  who  happened  to  reside  in  a  locality. 
If  you  can  educate  seamen  cheaper  in  any  other  way,  I 
am  for  abolishing  the  fishing  bounties.  I  am  for  sus- 
taining these  fishing  bounties  only  upon  the  ground  that 


392        LIFE  AND   SPEECHES  OF  HANNIBAL   HAMLIN. 

it  is  the  cheapest  mode  by  which  you  can  educate  men 
upon  whom  you  must  rely  in  the  emergency  of  war. 
Can  you  do  it  cheaper  in  any  other  way?  Then  do  it. 
I  am  not  advocating  bounties  to  any  class  of  citizens,  be 
they  who  they  may,  unless  it  be  of  national  importance, 
for  a  national  purpose,  and  be  the  most  economical  mode 
of  effecting  the  object.  I  believe  that  the  contribution 
of  two  or  three  hundred  thousand  dollars  a  year — the 
average  is  about  two  hundred  and  five  thousand  dollars — 
will  continually  keep  in  reserve  a  vast  corps  of  seamen, 
upon  whom  you  can  rely,  in  time  of  war,  better  than  any 
other  class  of  men,  a  class  upon  whom  you  must  call 
in  that  emergency.  If,  however,  there  is  any  alternative 
proposition,  if  there  is  any  other  way  in  which  seamen 
can  be  more  cheaply  and  economically  furnished  to  your 
navy,  then  I  am  not  in  favor  of  this.  I  am  not  in  favor 
of  bounties.  I  am  only  in  favor  of  them  in  this  case 
because  there  is  a  necessity  for  them,  from  the  nature  of 
the  business,  which  requires  aid  to  keep  it  alive ;  and 
to  keep  it  alive  is  the  only  way  in  which  you  can  get 
the  force  that  is  requisite  and  necessary. 

"  Now,  I  come  to  the  important  part  which  this  corps 
of  fishermen  bore  in  the  struggle  of  the  Revolutionary 
war.  They  were  few  in  number  then,  compared  to  what 
they  are  now,  but  they  were  important.  There  was  no 
branch  of  the  service  that  did  more  honorable  and  gal- 
lant service  than  they.  There  was  no  part  of  the  service 
that  aided  more  in  bringing  about  the  happy  negotia- 
tions which  ended  in  peace  and  in  our  independence. 
It  is  recorded  in  the  history  of  the  times,  and  of  it 
there  can  be  no  serious  question,  that  more  than  fifty 
thousand  tons  of  British  shipping  were  captured  in  1777 
by  these  New  England  fishermen.  Curwin,  of  Salem,  a 
loyalist,  who  fled  to  England,  states,  in  his  journal,  that 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES  OF   HANNIBAL   HAMLIN.        393 

from  May,  1776,  to  February,  1778,  Lloyd's  Coffee-house 
list  shows  that  American  privateers,  one  hundred  and 
seventy-three  in  number,  captured  seven  hundred  and 
thirty-three  British  vessels,  with  their  cargoes,  worth 
more  than  twenty -five  million  dollars ;  and  they  counted 
millions  of  dollars  by  a  higher  standard  in  that  day  than 
we  do  now.  Other  authorities,  entitled  to  confidence, 
show  that,  during  the  war,  full  two  hundred  thousand 
tons  of  shipping  were  taken  by  rebel  privateers.  We 
had  no  navy.  In  all  the  naval  service  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary war,  we  had  to  depend  mainly  upon  the  privateer 
service, — that  was  composed  almost  exclusively  of  the 
fishermen.  So  efficient  were  they,  that  underwriters 
demanded,  and  there  were  paid,  premiums  of  from  thirty 
to  fifty  per  cent.  The  mercantile  interest  of  England 
clamored  for  peace.  The  fishermen  were  abroad  upon 
every  water;  and  the  lagoons  of  the  Mediterranean 
never  swarmed  with  men  more  efficiently  engaged  in. 
catching  fish,  than  did  the  privateersmen  of  New  Eng- 
land swarm  the  ocean  in  capturing  British  vessels,  in 
the  war  of  the  Revolution. 

"  I  wish  to  read  an  authority  in  relation  to  their  serv- 
ices in  the  Revolutionary  war,  and  it  is  the  authority 
of  that  old  patriot  and  statesman,  Henry  Knox,  who 
shared  with  Washington  so  much  of  the  glories,  and 
suffered  so  many  of  the  hardships  of  the  war.  He 
speaks  with  a  feeling  heart  of  the  services  of  these  men 
in  that  day.  Knox,  himself  a  member  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Legislature,  long  after  peace  had  been  declared, 
in  speaking  of  these  fishermen,  gives  them  not  only  that 
proud  position  to  which  they  were  entitled  upon  the 
ocean,  but,  if  possible,  still  higher  credit  for  the  services 
they  had  performed  upon  the  land.  In  speaking  of  the 


394        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL  HAMLIIf. 

time  when  "Washington  was  obliged  to  cross  the  Dela- 
ware on  his  bridge  of  boats,  he  said  : 

" '  Sir,  I  wish  the  members  of  this  body  knew  the  people  of 
Marblehead  as  well  as  I  do.  I  could  wish  that  they  had  stood 
on  the  banks  of  the  Delaware  river  in  1777,  in  that  bitter  night 
when  the  Commander-in-chief  had  drawn  up  his  little  army  to 
cross  it,  and  had  seen  the  powerful  current  bearing  onward  the 
floating  masses  of  ice  which  threatened  destruction  to  whosoever 
should  venture  upon  its  bosom.  I  wish  that  when  this  occur- 
rence threatened  to  defeat  the  enterprise,  they  could  have  heard 
that  distinguished  warrior  demand,  "Who  will  lead  us  on?''  and 
seen  men  of  Marblehead,  and  Marblehead  alone,  stand  forward  to 
lead  the  army  along  the  perilous  path  to  unfading  glories  and 
honors  in  the  achievements  of  Trenton.  There,  sir,  went  the 
fishermen  of  Marblehead,  alike  at  home  upon  land  and  water, 
alike  ardent,  patriotic,  and  unflinching,  whenever  they  unfurled 
the  flag  of  the  country.' 

"But,  sir,  these  gallant,  patriotic  men  were  not  less 
serviceable  in  the  war  of  1812  than  in  the  war  of  the 
Revolution.  I  have  a  letter  from  that  gallant  old  man 
•who  did  such  distinguished  service  for  his  country, 
Commodore  Stewart.  I  addressed  him  a  note  some  time 
since,  asking  his  opinion  of  the  value  of  these  fishermen, 
on  whom  the  Senator  from  Alabama  seems  to  place  so 
low  an  estimate.  That  senator  said  : 

"'The  mere  inspection  of  a  smack  and  a  square-rigged  ship 
will  show  that  the  former  is  no  school  on  which  to  learn  how  to 
manage  the  latter.  The  contrast  is  as  great  as  between  a  log- 
cabin  and  the  labyrinth  of  Crete ;  and  the  cod  fisherman  would 
scarcely  be  more  at  fault  in  the  labyrinth  than  in  the  ship.' 

"  That  is  the  opinion  of  the  senator  from  Alabama.     I 
will  read  the  opinion  of  Commodore  Stewart." 
MR.  HALE. — "He  is  'green.'  "     (Laughter.) 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN,        395 

MR.  HAMLIN. — "  Commodore  Stewart  may  be  in  a 
green  old  age.  God  grant  that  many  days  may  yet  be 
spared  to  him,  for  the  gallant  service  that  he  has  done 
our  common  country.  I  have  also  a  letter  from  the  old- 
est active  commodore  in  your  navy,  that  I  propose  to- 
read.  The  senator  from  Alabama  says  he  has  talked 
with  naval  officers,  who  have  given  him  the  opinion 
which  leads  him  to  this  conclusion.  I  wish  he  would 
give  us  their  names.  I  should  like  to  see  that  naval  of- 
ficer who  ever  fought  a  naval  battle  with  New  England 
fishermen,  who  would  come  into  the  Senate  and  decry 
their  patriotism,  their  valor,  and  their  services.  I  think 
the  senator  has  talked  with  men  who  never  saw  such 
service. 

"  But,  sir,  let  me  read  this  letter,  so  full  of  fact,  so- 
pregnant  with  meaning,  from  that  gallant  old  commodore. 
I  will  not  read  it  all.  He  goes  on  to  describe  acts  of  per- 
sonal heroism  of  individual  members  of  his  crew,  who 
were  ready  to  go  down  amid  the  coral  and  sea-weed  in 
defense  of  a  common  flag  and  of  common  rights.  I  will 
read  only — for  it  is  all  that  is  important — the  conclusion 
which  he  arrived  at,  as  to  those  men  who,  according  to 
the  senator,  are  so  lost  on  naval  vessels.  He  commanded 
that  noble  old  ship,  the  Constitution,  through  the  prow- 
ess of  which  there  has  been  spread  and  gathered  more  of 
glory  to  the  American  navy  than  any  other  vessel ;  and 
he  speaks  of  the  crew  of  New  England  fishermen  under 
his  command  in  this  wise : 

"  '  They  were  all  enlisted  in  Boston,  Marblehead,  Salem,  and 
Portsmouth,  from  whence,  I  believe,  it  is  well  known  that  most  of 
the  sea-faring  men,  belonging  thereto,  come  from  the  New  England 
fisheries. 

'"In  all  my  sea  service,  I  have  never  seen,  on  board  of  a  ship 
of  war,'  (lost  in  the  labyrinth  of  Crete  !  says  the  senator  from  Ala- 


396        LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OP    HANNIBAL   HAMLIN. 

bama,)  'such  a  splendid  crew  for  expert  seamanship,  discipline, 
sobriety,  orderly  and  determined  bearing,  as  well  as  singleness 
of  purpose  for  glory  and  the  honor  of  their  flag,  than  that  one  of 
the  "  Constitution/'  It  may  not  be  inappropriate  to  repeat  here 
the  remark  of  the  first  Napoleon,  on  board  the  "  Bellerophon," 
when  reviewing  her  marines:  "What  could  not  be  done  with  an 
army  of  such  men?"  I  can  only  surmise  what  might  be  done  in 
ships  of  war,  with  such  crews?' 

"  Now,  the  opinion  of  the  senator  from  Alabama  does 
not  concur  with  Commodore  Stewart.  The  senator  from 
Alabama,  on  such  authorities  as  he  has  consulted,  thinks 
they  would  be  lost  on  a  man-of-war.  The  commodore 
says,  further : 

"  'In  conclusion,  I  may  say,  in  the  words  of  the  Sultan  of  Se- 
ringapatam  to  the  Governor-General  of  India:  "How  can  I  say 
more,"  in  behalf  of  so  noble  a  crew  of  ISIew  Englanders?' 

"  I  have  a  letter  here  from  your  oldest  active  commo- 
dore of  the  navy,  who  was  an  officer  on  board  this  very 
Constitution,  a  noble  and  a  gallant  man,  who  has  done 
gallant  service  for  his  country,  and  who  is  entitled  to  its 
thanks — a  letter  hardly  less  significant  than  that  which 
I  have  read  from  Commodore  Stewart.  What  does  he 
say  of  this  class  of  men,  who  are  out  of  place,  who  are 
not  educated,  who  do  not  know  what  belong  to  their  du- 
ties, because  they  have  only  been  fishermen  ?  I  addressed 
him  three  interrogatories,  the  scope  of  which  the  Senate 
will  understand  by  the  answers  he  has  submitted.  He 
says: 

"  'To  the  first,  I  say,  without  hesitation,  that  during  the  war  of 
1812,  and  at  all  times  since  I  have  been  in  the  navy,  we  have 
thought  ourselves  fortunate  when  we  could  obtain  American  fish- 
ermen for  the  public  service,  for  which  we  consider  no  class  of 
men  better  adapted.' 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN.        397 

"  The  senator  from  Alabama  told  us  they  were  not  fit 
for  naval  service.  Commodore  Shubrick  thinks  other- 
wise. Commodore  Shubrick  and  Commodore  Stewart 
have  had  a  little  experience  in  this  matter.  Both  of 
them  have  commanded  crews  of  these  very  men,  and 
they  know  something  about  them.  Commodore  Shu- 
brick continues : 

"  '  To  the  second,  I  say,  that  during  the  war  of  1812,  and  for  some 
jears  previous,  great  pains  were  taken  to  exclude  foreigners  from 
the  navy;  and  I  am  of  opinion  that,  particularly  during  the  last 
year,  a  majority  were  Americans.' 

"  That  was  in  answer  to  a  question  as  to  who  consti- 
tuted the  naval  crews  at  that  time.  I  regret  that  the 
Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Naval  Affairs  is  not 
present ;  but  I  shall  state  some  information  derived 
from  him  on  this  point.  That  interrogatory  was  pro- 
pounded for  the  very  reason  that  I  understand,  as  a  mat- 
ter beyond  all  doubt,  that  two-thirds  at  least,  probably 
three-fourths,  of  every  crew  that  treads  the  decks  of 
every  vessel  in  our  navy,  is  constituted  of  foreigners — 
not  a  very  safe  class  of  men  to  intrust  the  interests  of 
your  country  and  the  integrity  of  your  flag  to,  in  the 
trying  times  of  war.  It  may  do  in  piping  times  of  peace, 
but  it  had  better  not  be  so  then.  Wise  policy,  elevated 
statesmanship,  that  shall  rise  above  the  catching  of  a  cod 
or  the  locality  of  the  interest,  would  dictate  that  both  in 
our  commercial  and  in  our  naval  marine  the  integrity  of 
our  flag  should  be  intrusted  to  American  hands  and 
American  hearts.  Sir,  it  is  a  miserable,  it  is  a  local,  it 
is  a  provincial  view  of  the  question,  that  limits  it  down 
to  that  narrow  point. 

To  the  third  interrogatory  which  I  put  to  the  Commo- 
dore, he  says  : 


398        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OF  HANNIBAL  HAM  LIN. 

'"To  the  third,  I  say,  that  any  policy  by  the  Government  which 
will  tend  to  provide,  during  peace,  for  the  exigencies  of  war,  "is 
wise,"  and  none  would  be  more  so  than  to  nurture  the  body  of 
American  seamen  who  are  trained  in  the  fisheries." 

"  Now,  sir,  I  think  these  two  letters  are  very  good 
authority,  coming  from  gallant  old  Stewart  and  Shu- 
brick,  who  stand  now  at  the  head  of  your  active  naval 
list,  both  of  whom  have  seen  much  more  than  any  other 
men  in  your  naval  service,  of  the  merits  of  this  very 
class  of  men.  Why,  sir,  in  the  war  of  1812,  you  could 
hardly  man  a  frigate  without  these  very  same  fishermen. 
According  to  the  authority  of  John  Quincy  Adams,  who 
examined  this  question  with  great  care,  and  I  repeat 
almost  in  his  own  words,  all  of  the  glory  and  all  of  the 
renown  that  were  won  by  your  little  and  gallant  navy  in 
the  war  of  1812,  were  won  by  the  prowess  of  American 
fishermen.  They  struck  for  freedom  with  a  freeman's 
arm.  In  every  battle  that  was  fought  upon  the  ocean, 
and  upon  the  lakes,  they  manned  your  ships,  they  con- 
stituted your  crews.  They  shed  all  the  luster  and  renown 
upon  your  little  navy,  with  the  aid  of  gallant  officers,  that 
was  shed  upon  it;  and  now,  at  this  late  day,  because  they 
happened  to  be  situated  in  a  particular  locality,  and,  I 
fear,  in  obedience  to  a  provincial,  sectional,  Southern 
press,  they  are  to  be  stricken  down. 

"  I  will  read  a  single  authority  more  in  relation  to  the 
service  which  these  men  performed,  because  it  is  from  a 
man  conversant  with  that  service,  who  lived  amid  these 
seamen.  Daniel  Webster  said,  in  1852,  what  is  historic- 
ally true,  in  addressing  some  of  them : 

"  '  There  are  among  you  some  who,  perhaps,  have  been  on  the 
Grand  Banks  for  forty  successive  years.  There  they  have  hung 
on  to  the  ropes,  in  storm  and  wreck.  The  most  important  conse- 
quences are  involved  in  this  matter.  Our  fisheries  have  been  the 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   HANNIBAL   HAMLIN.       399 

very  nurseries  of  our  navy.  If  our  flag-ships  have  met  and  con- 
quered the  enemy  on  the  sea,  the  fisheries  are  at  the  bottom  of  it. 
The  fisheries  were  the  seeds  from  which  these  glorious  triumphs 
Vrere  born  and  sprung.' 

"During  the  war  of  1812,  we  captured  from  the  British 
more  than  two  thousand  three  hundred  sail  of  vessels, 
mounting  more  than  eight  thousand  guns ;  fifty-six  men- 
of-war,  mounting  nearly  nine  hundred  guns,  and  took  in 
all  about  thirty  thousand  prisoners  of  war.  Of  the  cap- 
tures iu  the  privateer  service,  the  greatest  number  was 
by  these  fishermen. 

"  Now,  sir,  I  want  to  invite  the  attention  of  the  Senate 
to  the  manner  in  which  other  nations  (because  we  may 
draw  some  light  from  their  practice)  have  regarded  the 
fisheries  as  auxiliaries  to  commercial  and  naval  power. 
The  senator  from  Alabama  tells  us  that  the  bounties 
which  have  been  conferred  by  Holland,  by  England,  and 
by  France,  upon  their  fisheries,  have  proved  a  failure. 
I  do  not  quote  his  language,  but  I  think  I  state  his  idea. 
I  understand  no  such  thing;  and  I  think  the  history  of 
the  matter  proves  no  such  thing. 

-  "  From  the  days  of  the  commercial  prosperity  of  Ven- 
ice down  to  the  present  time,  every  nation  which  has 
been  distinguished  for  its  commerce  and  naval  power,  it 
will  be  found,  has  not  only  devoted  its  energies  to  this 
branch  of  industry,  but  it  has  relied  implicitly  upon  it 
as  a  great  source  from  which  its  navy  and  its  commerce 
were  to  be  sustained.  When  Venice  was  mistress  of  the 
Adriatic  ;  when  she  commanded  absolutely  the  Mediter- 
ranean, and  almost  the  whole  of  Europe  ;  when  she  was 
indeed  the  first  commercial  power  in  all  Europe,  and  it 
is  said  by  some  writers,  equal  to  all  Europe,  she  had  a 
corps  of  fishermen,  with  which  to  supply  her  commerce 
and  her  navy  along  her  coasts  and  bays.  They  covered 


400       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OP   HANNIBAL   HAMLIN. 

the  lagoons  ;  they  swarmed  the  Mediterranean  ;  and  her 
argosies  were  found  in  every  port  along  the  British  coast. 
Her  vessels  visited  every  port  in  the  Mediterranean,  and 
every  coast  in  Europe.  Her  maritime  commerce  was 
probably  not  much  inferior  to  all  the  rest  of  Christen- 
dom. Such  was  Venice  in  the  day  of  her  greatest  com- 
mercial prosperity  ;  and  that  prosperity  was,  in  a  great 
degree,  attributable  to  the  enterprise  of  her  seamen, 
who  had  been  trained  and  educated  in  the  school  of 
her  fisheries.  They  were  hardy,  industrious,  and  ener- 
getic, and  they  went  wherever  commerce  could  find  an 
avenue. 

"  Holland,  also,  furnished  a  remarkable  illustration 
of  the  importance  of  the  fisheries  in  connection  with 
commerce.  It  is  an  old  maxim — for  it  has  grown  into  a 
maxim — that  Amsterdam  was  built  on  fishes'  bones  ;  and 
•when  Van  Tromp  swept  the  British  seas  with  a  broom 
at  his  masthead,  he  supplied  his  vessels  with  a  corps  of 
those  herring  fishermen.  A  dispatch  on  the  causes  of 
its  commercial  prosperity,  prepared  with  great  care  by 
the  direction  of  the  Stadtholder,  places  the  fisheries  in 
the  first  class  of  causes  as  contributing  to  the  advance- 
ment of  the  republic  in  its  unexampled  prosperity.  Such 
was  beyond  all  doubt  the  fact.  Go  to  Spain,  sir,  and, 
in  the  day  of  her  prosperity,  when  she  fitted  out  her  ar- 
mada, and  when  she  had  colonial  possessions  that  em- 
ployed her  fisheries,  she  was  greatest  in  commerce,  she 
was  greatest  in  commercial  prosperity,  and  she  was  great- 
est in  her  naval  power.  Go  to  France  ;  and  what  do  you 
find?  I  will  show  that  they  regard  this  very  class  of 
fishermen  as  constituting  apportion  of  the  naval  service. 
In  1851,  Mr.  Ancet,  in  relation  to  the  fisheries,  made 
the  following  report  to  the  National  Assembly  in 
France  • 


LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OF   HANNIBAL   HAMLIN.       401 

"  '  It  is  not,  therefore,  a  commercial  law  that  we  have  the  honor 
to  propose  to  the  Assembly,  but  rather  a  maritime  law — a  law  con- 
ceived for  the  advancement  of  the  naval  power  of  this  country. 
I  "  '  No  other  school  can  compare  with  this  in  preparing  them 
(seamen)  so  well,  and  in  numbers  so  important,  for  the  service  of 
the  navy. 

{•   " '  It  may  be  said  of  this  fishery,  that  if  it  prepares  fewer  men 
for  the  sea,  it  forms  better  sailors — the  elite  of  the  navy. 

" '  The  preservation  of  the  great  fisheries  assumes  a  degree  of 
importance  more  serious,  when  they  are  viewed  as  being  in  fact 
the  nursery  of  our  military  marine.' 

"  In  another  place,  in  the  same  report,  he  continues, 
speaking  of  Great  Britain  : 

"  'The  loss  of  her  most  magnificent  colonies  has  occasioned  irre- 
parable injury  to  the  commercial  marine,  which  is  an  essential 
element  of  the  naval  power.  *  *  * 

"  '  In  order  to  preserve  them,  (the  fisheries,)  we  must  continue 
the  encouragements  they  have  received,  even  at  periods  when  a 
commercial  and  colonial  prosperity,  infinitely  superior  to  that  now 
existing,  multiplied  our  shipping,  and  created  abundance  of  sea- 
men. It  is  on  our  fisheries  that  at  this  day  repose  all  the. most 
serious  hopes  of  our  maritime  enlistments.' 

"  Again  he  says  : 

"  Without  aid,  the  cod  fisheries  could  not  exist.  They  furnish 
more  than  a  third  of  our  seamen,  and  by  far  the  best  portion  of 
them.  There  is  no  cheaper,  better,  or  more  useful  school  for  the 
formation  of  seamen  for  the  navy,  and  none  is  more  capable  of 
extension  and  development.' 

"  Let  me  read  from  a  report  made  to  the  British  Parlia- 
ment, in  1846,  by  Mr.  MacGregor  : 

"  In  speaking  of  the  fisheries,  De  Witt  says  :   - 

"  '  That  the  English  navy  became  formidable  by  the  discovery 
of  the  inexpressibly  rich  fishing  bank  of  Newfoundland.    *    *    * 
34 


402       LIFE   AND   SPEECHES   OP   HANNIBAL   HAMLIN. 

"'And,  from  1618,  the  fisheries  were  carried  on  by  England,  and 
became  of  great  national  consideration. 

" '  Before  the  conquest  of  Cape  Breton-,  by  these  alone  France 
became  formidable  to  all  Europe.' 

"  There  was  a  period  of  time  when  France  came  nearly 
equalling  England  in  her  commercial  power,  and  that 
was  when  she  held  control  of  the  fisheries.  Mr.  Mac- 
Gregor  continues  : 

"  'It  was  a  maxim  with  the  French  Government,  that  their  Amer- 
ican fisheries  were  of  more  national  value,  in  regard  to  navigation 
and  power,  than  the  gold  mines  of  Mexico  could  have  been,  if  the 
latter  were  possessed  by  France.' 

"  He  says,  further : 

'"It  is  very  remarkable  that,  in  our  treaties  with  France,  the 
fisheries  of  North  America  were  made  a  stipulation  of  extra- 
ordinary importance.  The  Minister  of  that  power  considered  the 
value  of  those  fisheries,  not  so  much  in  a  commercial  point  of 
view,  but  as  essential  in  providing  their  navy  with  that  physical 
strength  which  would  enable  them  to  cope  with  other  nations. 

"  The  policy  of  the  French,  from  their  first  planting  colonies  in 
North  America,  insists  particularly  on  training  seamen  by  means 
of  these  fisheries.  In  conducting  their  cod  fishery,  one-third,  or  at 
least  one-quarter  of  the  men  employed  in  it  were  '  green  men,'  or 
men  who  were  never  at  sea  before ;  and  by  this  trade  they  bred 
from  four  thousand  to  six  thousand  seamen  annually.' 

"This  is  the  view  which  they  take  of  the  importance  of 
these  men  in  France  and  in  England  to-day  ;  and  an 
enlightened  view  of  the  subject  ought  to  lead  us  to  treat 
them  as  of  equal  importance.  They  are  so  in  fact.  In 
1841,  when  war  was  apprehended  by  France,  M.  Thiers 
called  in  the  services  of  the  fishermen  ;  and  M.  Rodet 
afterward  remarked,  '  Without  the  resources  which  were 
found  in  the  sailors  engaged  in  the  fisheries,  the  expedi- 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL   HAMILN.       403 

tion  to  Algiers  could  not  have  taken  place.'  In  reply 
to  the  assertion  of  the  senator  from  Alabama,  as  to  the 
effect  of  the  bounties  on  the  commerce  of  England,  I 
will  quote  an  authority  of  great  weight,  Mr.  Sabine's 
able  work  upon  the  fishery  : 

" '  It  is  certain,  that,  down  to  the  time  of  Elizabeth,  the  foreign 
trade  of  England  was  in  the  control  of  German  merchants,  and 
that  there  had  been  no  employment  for  many  or  for  large  ships  of 
the  realm.  British  navigation  increased  with  the  growth  of  the 
fisheries.  Without  the  fleets  maintained  at  Iceland  and  New- 
foundland, there  would  have  been  neither  ships  nor  seamen  to  ex- 
ecute the  plan  for  the  colonization  of  New  England,  and  of 
other  parts  of  the  continent,  during  the  reigns  of  James  and 
Charles.' 

"  I  have  already  stated  the  view  which  was  taken  of 
this  matter  in  our  early  history.  It  is  true,  as  the  sena- 
tor from  Alabama  stated,  that  Fisher  Ames  did  say,  in 
the  House  of  Representatives,  that  the  taking  of  cod  is 
a  very  momentous  concern.  I  quote  the  "words  ;  and 
when  I  quote  them,  I  do  not  confine  my  idea  to  the  mere 
mechanical  act  of  taking  fish,  but  I  look  at  its  commer- 
cial relation ;  at  its  naval  relation  ;  I  look  at  the  pros- 
perity of  the  country,  and  its  connection  with  that 
prosperity.  Fisher  Ames  said,  in  the  same  connec- 
tion : 

" '  It  forms  a  nursery  for  seamen,  and  this  will  be  the  source 
from  which  we  are  to  derive  maritime  importance.' 

"  Mr.  Gerry  said  in  the  same  debate : 

"'I  will  not  reiterate  the  arguments  respecting  the  fisheries; 
it  is  well  known  to  be  the  best  nursery  for  seamen.' 

"Jefferson,  as  Secretary  of  State,  in  his  report,  in 
1791,  uses  this  language  : 


404       LIFE   AND  SPEECHES   OP   HANNIBAL   HAMLIN. 

"' We  have  two  nurseries  for  forming  seamen.  1.  Our  coasting 
trade,  already  on  a  safe  footing.  2.  Our  fisheries,  which,  in  spite 
of  natural  advantages,  give  us  just  cause  of  anxiety.' 

"  After  reviewing  -the  condition  of  the  fisheries,  their 
necessities  and  importance,  Mr.  Jefferson  said,  in  1791  : 

" '  It  will  rest,  therefore,  with  the  Legislature,  to  decide  whether 
prohibition  should  not  be  opposed  to  prohibition,  and  high  duty  to 
high  duty,  on  the  fish  of  other  nations ;  whether  any,  and  which, 
of  the  naval  and  other  duties  may  be  remitted,  or  an  equivalent 
given  to  fishermen,  in  the  form  of  drawback  or  bounties.' 

"Mr.  Jefferson  uses  this  language  in  his  message  of 
December  16,  1802  : 

"'To  cultivate  peace,  and  maintain  commerce  and  navigation 
in  all  their  lawful  enterprises;  to  foster  our  fisheries  and  nurse- 
ries of  navigation,  and  for  the  nurture  of  man  *  *  *  are 
the  landmarks  by  which  we  are  to  guide  ourselves  in  all  our 
proceedings.' 

"  The  importance  of  these  fisheries  to-day  is  well 
worthy  of  attention." 

Mr.  Hamlin  made  the  following  effective  answer  to  the 
remark  of  the  senator  from  Alabama,  that  the  bounty 
law  is  unequal : 

"  The  senator  from  Alabama  may  tell  me  truly  that 
his  State  does  not  enjoy  the  advantages  of  the  bounty 
law.  Granted.  The  law  which  regulates  the  rates  of 
postages  and  collects  the  revenue,  for  the  purpose  of 
paying  for  the  transmission  of  mails,  is  no  more  and  no 
less  a  general  law  than  this  in  relation  to  fisheries ;  and, 
if  there  be  force  in  the  senator's  argument,  while  it  may 
not  apply  in  as  strong  a  degree  in  point  of  fact,  it  applies 
precisely  with  the  same  force  to  the  post  office  laws. 
The  Northern  States  pay  more  than  the  expenses  of 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN.        405 

their  mails,  and  contribute  that  amount  to  the  support 
of  mails  in  the  South.  In  1850,  the  total  postage  col- 
lected in  the  Southern  States  was  $1,042,809.24,  and  the 
expense  of  transportation,  $1,496,356.50 ;  while,  in  the 
Northern  States,  the  postage  collected  was  $2,975,852.19, 
and  the  expense  of  transportation,  $1,427,822.63.  In 
1855,  the  total  postage  collected  in  the  Southern  States 
was  $1,553,198;  cost  of  transportation,  $2,385,953;  while 
in  the  Northern  States  the  postage  was  $4,670,725,  and 
the  transportation,  $2,608,295.  In  1857,  the  receipts 
were  at  the  South,  $1,672,856.78,  and  the  cost  of  the 
service,  $2,329,299;  while  in  the  North  the  receipts 
were  $5,498,303.12,  and  the  cost  of  service  $4,095,267. 
In  1855,  Maine  contributed  $151.358  to  the  Post  Office 
revenues,  and  cost  $82,218;  while  Alabama  cost  $226,- 
816,  and  contributed  $104,514. 

"  itnake  no  complaint  of  this;  but  I  only  use  it  as  an 
illustration,  for  the  purpose  of  showing  that  any  general 
law,  in  its  application,  may  draw  from  one  section  of  the 
country  a  portion  of  the  revenue  to  carry  out  the  sys- 
tem in  another.  The  senator's  own  State  shows  a  defi- 
ciency in  the  post  office  revenue  of  about  one  hundred 
and  twenty  thousand  dollars  annually ;  and  I  contribute 
very  cheerfully,  whether  it  be  by  direct  appropriation 
or  in  any  other  way,  to  supply  the  deficit,  in  order  to 
carry  out  a  general  system.  The  post  office  law  is  no 
more  general,  no  more  applicable  to  all,  than  this  other 
law.  In  the  one  case,  the  fisheries  happen  to  be  local, 
although  connected  with  the  commerce  and  navy  of  the 
country,  and  they  are  in  their  importance  as  national  as 
though  they  spread  all  along  the  coast. 

"  Another  word,  sir.  I  have  taken  some  pains  to  ex- 
amine, from  a  paper  which  has  been  very  kindly  pre- 
sented to  me  by  a  friend  who  has  resided  on  the  Pacific 


406        LIFE  AND  SPEECHES  OP  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN. 

coast,  the  fisheries  in  those  waters,  and  I  have  arrived 
at  the  conclusion  that  precisely  the  same  state  of  things 
•which  exist  on  that  coast  exist  on  the  Atlantic  coast ; 
and  I  have  not  a  doubt  that,  for  the  purpose  of  raising  a 
corps  of  seamen  there,  the  application  of  this  law  is  as 
wise  for  the  Pacific  coast  as  for  the  coast  of  the  Atlan- 
tic. Nor  have  I  a  doubt  that,  when  they  come  to  exam- 
ine it  carefully,  they  will  find  it  as  necessary  there  as 
it  is  here,  as  wise  there  as  it  is  here,  and  wise  in  both 
instances." 

All  who  read  the  extracts  which  we  have  given,  will 
see  that  fearless  and  decided  as  Mr.  Hamlin  has  been  in 
the  utterance  of  his  individual  opinions,  patriotism  has 
always  governed  him  more  than  partisanship.  Devoted 
to  his  own  state  and  people  as  few  men  have  been,  he 
has  never  been  local  or  sectional.  He  has  faithfully 
discharged  all  his  duties  as  a  public  man,  and  •vlRl  be 
prepared  to  meet  the  exalted  responsibilities  which  may 
devolve  upon  him.  He  will  doubtless  prove  the  wise  and 
trusted  counselor  of  the  chief  magistrate  of  the  Union, 
and  will  stand  faithfully  at  his  side  a  defender  of  "  the 
rights  of  all  the  States,  and  Territories,  and  people  of  the 
Nation,  the  inviolability  of  the  Constitution,  and  the  per- 
petual union,  harmony,  and  prosperity  of  all." 


THE     END. 


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